[Dialogue] From a Methodist, on Iraq

[KarenBueno at aol.com]

A fundamental wrong turn’

By Jim Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church & Society, United 
Methodist Church

I drive past the Pentagon each morning on my way in to Washington, D.C. Each 
day I am reminded of the death and destruction that took place there seven 
years ago. And there is still no trace of the mastermind of the terrorist 
attacks, Osama bin Laden. John Brennan, a former deputy executive director of the 
Central Intelligence Agency and a former chief of the National Counterterrorism 
Center, describes Iraq as a “fundamental wrong turn.” He asserts that “the 
most strategically negative action” was taken. “The collective effort in the 
government required to go after an individual like bin Laden, the Iraq campaign 
consumed that,” he says. 

After years of repetition, President Bush finally has abandoned making public 
statements falsely tying Iraq to the Sept. 11 attacks. Would only that Vice 
President Cheney might acknowledge reality. Along comes Gov. Sarah Palin, 
however, to newly claim that Iraq had something to do with the terrorist plot. She 
recently told a group of soldiers heading to Iraq they would “defend the 
innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of 
thousands of Americans.” 
The downward spiral of the U.S. economy has distracted our citizens from the 
continuing disaster in Iraq, the failing efforts in Afghanistan, and the new 
war emerging in Pakistan. This is unfortunate because much is happening. 
Despite the supposed success of the surge, President Bush plans to leave more 
troops in Iraq than before the surge began. Why? Because the “security gains”
 that have been made are unsustainable without them. The Iraqi people and 
government still want the United States to get out of their country, and violence 
against U.S. forces will not cease until the day they leave. 

In addition to a greater troop resence in Iraq, the United States is paying 
$300 a month to tens of thousands of Iraqis who had previously been fighting 
against us. The United States wants the Iraqi government to use their budget 
surplus to start paying these militias themselves, but so far the Iraqis are 
resisting. 
Further, Bob Woodward reports in The Washington Post, “Beginning in the late 
spring of 2007, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies launched a series 
of top-secret operations that enabled them to locate, target and kill key 
individuals in groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgency and renegade 
Shia militias, or so-called special groups. The operations incorporated some 
of the most highly classified techniques and information in the U.S. government.
” 
General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the Joint Special Operations 
Command, said that signal intercepts, human intelligence and other methods have 
enabled rapid operations to take place. I believe we will hear much more about 
these secret killing operations in the months to come. 
In his new book on the Bush Administration, The War Within, Woodward reports 
the United States secretly listens in on every word Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri 
al-Maliki speaks. Needless to say, the Iraqis have not been excited to learn 
about this. 
The U.S. public wanted out of Iraq by 2006. Woodward reveals to us that, at 
the same time, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, General George Casey, and 
General John Abizaid, who was in charge of the Central Command, and nearly all 
of the uniformed military, had concluded it was time to wrap up the war. 
President Bush turned to retired General Jack Keane, however, and a 
Washington-based think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, for different ideas. 
Remember, if you will, that President Bush’s mantra over the years has been 
that he follows the advice of his military commanders. Until, that is, they 
want to end a disastrous war that he started. Bush brooked no doubts. He said: “We
’re killin’ ‘em. We’re killin’ ‘em all.” 

Another important new book, The Way of the World, by Ron Suskind, provides 
further evidence the Bush administration was aware before invading Iraq that 
Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction. 
It turns out that Saddam’s foreign minister, Naji Sabri, was a spy for French 
intelligence. Sabri confirmed that Iraq did not have weapons of mass 
destruction. President Bush dismissed Sabri’s account. The French monitored Sabri’s 
phone calls, which confirmed what he told the United States. 
Suskind also reveals that British intelligence met secretly with the head of 
Iraqi intelligence, Tahir Jalil Habbush, before the war began. And, Britain 
also confirmed that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. This information 
was passed to the White House and rejected by President Bush. 
During the months prior to the Iraq War, the head of British intelligence was 
Sir Richard Dearlove. “The problem was the Cheney crowd was in too much of a 
hurry, really,” He told Suskind. “Bush never resisted them strongly enough.” 
Meanwhile, Thomas Fingar, the top U.S. government intelligence analyst, gave 
a preview last week of the report on world trends that will be presented to 
the incoming president. He predicts we are moving into a new era in which U.S. 
dominance declines as does the influence of the World Bank and the United 
Nations. Climate change will result in droughts, food shortages, and a scarcity of 
fresh water in many parts of the world, according to the analysis. Mass 
migration and political difficulties will result, and the American Southwest will 
face “dustbowl” conditions. 
Creative and courageous leadership is required in the years ahead. Former 
President Jimmy Carter offers these suggestions for the way forward: “My country 
will never again torture a prisoner. We will never again attack another 
country unless our security is directly threatened. Human rights will be the 
foundation of our foreign policy. We will act on global warming. We will honor 
international agreements. We will bring peace and security to Israel and all its 
neighbors and treat them all on an equal basis.” 
Honesty, love, forgiveness, generosity, an open mind: That’s how individuals 
and nations should approach the world. This sounds a lot like a United 
Methodist mission trip: “Because of the love we have experienced through Jesus 
Christ, we’ve come to help you and we ask nothing in return.” Date: 9/15/2008
©2005-2008
    






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