09/08/2004: "Foreign policy from the Eighth Dimension"

There are times when I wonder whether the denizens of the Naional Council of Churches ever stick their heads out the window and connect to the real world. Here they are talking about the third anniversary of 9/11:

The NCC's general secretary, Dr. Bob Edgar, recalls that "in the first few hours and days after September 11, widespread empathy and solidarity with the U.S. held out the real possibility that our country could be part of a global community working for justice.

"But blinded by fear, a large portion of our population did not recognize this great opportunity," he says. "Instead we, as a people, allowed a unilateral and first-strike war, the weakening of civil rights of our own citizens, and the denial of due process to many foreign nationals."

As I recall, America's first response to 9/11 was in Afghanistan, where we had Security Council backing, French and German support, and specific al-Qaeda and Qaeda-connected targets. It was anything but "a unilateral and first-strike war," but that didn't matter�Bob was against that action, too. Apparently the NCC definition of a "global community working for justice" is on in which terrorists may kill with impunity, never having to fear military retaliation.

"The U.S. has gone from Afghanistan to Iraq, and may be on the way to other wars, without the national dialogue that is the hallmark of a democracy," notes the Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, NCC Deputy General Secretary. "No one wants to minimize security�I certainly don't," she says. "But there is a fine line where security ends and aggression begins."

Lindner has apparently just woken up from a three-year nap. If what we've been doing over the last three years, and especially in the two since Congress gave the President the authority to use force in Iraq, is not a "national dialogue," I'm sure I have no clue what would qualify.

Talking about an NCC ~~propaganda piece~~ curriculum, Lindner goes on to say:

"There are strong and competing visions of America's role in the world, ranging from the go-it-alone mentality to an approach that is multilateral and aims at lasting peace through cooperation," Lindner says. According to "before and after" attitudinal surveys that were a part of the test phase, congregants who engaged the curriculum "showed a substantial change of mind," Lindner reports. "The shift is toward an understanding that we actually have better control of our national destiny when we cooperate with others in the world community."

Though the NCC has virtually no unifying theology, it does have a foreign policy, one that it is positively evangelistic about. What the source of revelation is for this is a mystery.

"Most of our ecumenical colleagues overseas still clearly distinguish between the American people�who are seen as good natured, generous and faithful�and the Administration, whose policies they call arrogant, callous and so self-centered that it is as if the opinions of the rest of the world do not matter," [Dr. Tony] Kireopoulos reports.

I wonder if the "ecumenical colleagues" to whom Kireopoulos refers include any Iraqi Christians, or for that matter Afghan women. I'm sure that arrogance, callousness, and self-centeredness are positively defined by freeing 50 million people from two of the most repressive regimes on the planet. Why would we have wanted to go and do a thing like that?

September 11 had the effect of pushing the U.S. in a dangerous unilateral direction, Premawardhana says. For Christians concerned about this development, better interfaith relations are an important part of the "multilateral paradigm" that is the world's best hope for peace, and it is time to spread this message, [Dr. Shanta] Premawardhana says.

I guess these folks think that if they repeat the mantra of "unilateralism" often enough, that will make it true. As of August 30 the U.S. has thirty-one other countries fighting for freedom in Iraq. Over 100 members of the British, Italian, Spanish, South Korean, Australian, Polish, and other armed forces have died in that fight. Others like Israel and Pakistan support what we are doing though they haven't contributed troops. Among the nations fighting alongside America are former Communist states Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Among the European Union nations in the effort are Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Great Britain. (Source: Global Security.) Maybe the NCC doesn't like the numbers of troops these nations have sent, but to keep saying that the U.S. is acting unilaterally is an insult to the brave men and women from these and other countries that are seeking to bring freedom, justice, and peace to Iraq.