No Resolution Needed on the Iraq War

The umbrella organization of Judaism's Reform movement is contemplating the adoption of a resoluton opposing the Iraq war. I'm kind of surprised at myself, but I'm not particularly enthusiastic about issuing such a call as community.

Now, I have been against this monstrous war since the time when it was still merely a gleam in our president’s eye. As the recent Libby trial has shown, as virtually every piece of information that has ever emerged about it has proven and as history will show, this is a war built on deception, exploitation of fear, on a lie. It’s really doesn’t matter whether there are parallels to Vietnam because this war is happening now and not then, but I do believe that the analogy is compelling. We’re stuck in another quagmire and that it was only by government deception that we got there in the first place. Unfortunately, there seems to be no end to human misery and no shortage of fear and loathing available for tyrants big and small to exploit. But that doesn’t mean that the exercise of American imperial power has anything to do with alleviating the misery. More often than not, we seem to be part of the problem rather than the solution. We’ve met the enemy in Iraq alright — and it is us.

Having said all that, however, I really think the resolution is an irrelevancy, or worse. The various textual sources cited in the resolution make a convincing case that under Jewish law we are compelled to be cautious in our resort to violence and its ultimate manifestation, war. So what else is new? I suspect that every religion in existence has a similar principle written down somewhere. Besides, most people are going to determine their positions on an issue of this sort based on the news (or what they’ve been led to believe is the news). Whether they believe the war is discretionary or compelled derives from whatever information they have at their disposal.

This brings me to what I believe the proper role of Jewish tradition should play in evaluating one’s position on this issue and then responding accordingly. If our tradition teaches me anything, it’s the importance of personal accountability and responsibility. For me, being accountable means taking action as often as possible based on my opposition to the war. By virtue of our status as citizens and the tax payers who are footing the bill for it, the government is fighting this war in our name. That makes every one of us responsible for what’s going on. If that’s the case, it’s not enough merely to say you’re opposed. You have to try to do something about it.

What’s even harder for me to live with is the idea that the government is sending other peoples’ children to die in my name. My teenage boys would go to Iraq over my dead body. So what right do I have to sit by and do nothing while other young men and women are going in their stead? Let’s all be honest with ourselves, Park Slope parents. The Iraq war would end next week if the draft were reinstituted (this time, of course, minus the college deferments, probably the clearest manifestation of class bias ever formulated by a modern industrial society, though our current “volunteer” army is running a close second).

To me, a resolution from our movement’s umbrella organization is an invitation to do nothing rather than being accountable. If I’m against the war, I don’t need the URJ to do my bidding for me. I need to get out in the streets where I belong. The time has passed when armchair activism is an acceptable reaction to this war. It’s simply not good enough merely to be smug about the moron in the White House or his evil Rasputin of a Vice President, or to rely on resolutions. The time for action is at hand, and if you think a resolution from an abstraction like the URJ has anything to do with stopping our government from continuing to pursue this evil deed, you’re deluding yourself.

On the merits, I found the resolution kind of mealy-mouthed. Want an anti-war resolution imbued with the wisdom of our sages, here it is: “If you’re against the war, get off your ass.” All the rest is commentary.

Mayor Daley: A Man for All Seasons

Reading David Brooks’s column this morning in the New York Times, I was reminded of a famous malaprop committed by Mayor Richard J. Daley, of Chicago. After the Chicago police became the big story at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Daley had the impossible task of defending a police riot reminiscent of the Nazi era. Indeed, in a speech during the convention, Senator Abraham Ribicoff, a mainstream politician, had referred to “gestapo tactics” in the streets of Chicago by the police. Afterwards, Daley classically lectured the press that “the policeman isn’t there to create disorder. The policeman is there to preserve disorder.” And that’s about what where we are in Iraq. It’s going to be interesting to see who turns the light out when we finally leave. I had thought Bush was the last person in America still speaking in earnest about staying the course. (I’m not counting McCain who’s got to be doing it for political effect – presumably, he’s staking out the “I told you so” concession for the 2008 election). But after reading Brooks this morning, it looks like Bush still has some company with him guarding the light switch. I suppose that even the most ardent advocates of leaving Iraq, and I count myself in that number, have to allow the possibility that a quick American withdrawal will lead to even greater disruption. If that were to happen, who knows? Maybe Brooks is right, and the chaos would spread like wild fire. I don’t happen to believe that, but I wouldn’t presume to make any predictions about anything in the Middle East at this point. But the tenor of Brooks’s column is that our exit from Iraq is a catastrophe waiting to happen. The problem, of course, is that the catastrophe has already been with us for almost four years and we all know what caused it. It’s clear what kind of problems the American occupation is causing every day for the Iraqi people and our beleaguered soldiers. The far more compelling school of thought is that our departure is the only way to help this infection to start to heal, however long that might take. It’s difficult to see anything positive in our continued presence, unless, as Mayor Daley might have put it, you believe that we are in Iraq to “preserve the disorder.”