I want to re-commit to putting my thoughts in writing this fall, despite an ongoing busy schedule. Many things fill my mind, and it helps to give them some organized expression. I'm going to start with Iraq.
The surge failed miserably even by the administration's metrics, so it's even more obvious that it's time to end our Yosemite Sam blustering and return as a serious player to the table of nations. Our immaturity is obvious to the world, so the best solution is to grow up instead of continuing to act childishly. (I believe I got that advice from my mother more than once.)
The question that arises is how to exit without leaving behind a situation for the Iraqis that is even worse than the desperate circumstance they're in now. My impression, having listened to a number of experts, is that our presence is a catalyst for a good deal of the violence, so our exit might well reduce the intensity of the civil war--or at least not increase it. But as Christians, we should want much more for the Iraqis than what they have now.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives has assembled the best plan I have seen for an ethical exit from Iraq--a plan that has the best chance of making Iraq a respectable, nonviolent nation. (Ironically, the same group assembled the best plan for avoiding war with Iraq--while ending or changing Saddam's regime--in 2003.) The group created a full-page ad detailing this plan, and published it in The New York Times in the early summer.
1. Repentance. The first step--a step missed by even most anti-war politicians--is that we must repent. We must admit that it was wrong to invade Iraq, and we must ask and earn forgiveness for our actions.
And in repenting on behalf of all Americans, including those who are not religious, the president (or Congress) should acknowledge that this entire society has mistakenly adhered to the view that safety and security can be achieved through domination or control of others, but that a better path to safety and security is to treat others withgenerosity, kindness and genuine concern for their well being.2. Replace U.S. and British forces with an international peace force acceptable to the Iraqi people. This can't happen while we are occupying Iraq, but it can happen if we get out. This force would be
composed primarily of Muslims from non-neighboring states, but also non-Muslims from other states not engaged in violence or economic boycotts against the Iraqi people, could provide security and fill the power vacuum and conduct a plebiscite so that the Iraqi people themselves could determine their own future. The U.S. should give all our Iraqi military bases to this force, leave no forces behind as “advisors” or deployed in neighboring states ready to re-intervene. And we should require that all U.S. corporations operating in Iraq give at least themajority of their Iraq-derived profits to the task of Iraqi reconstruction.3. Rebuild Iraq and launch a Global Marshall Plan.
True repentance requires the works of repentance. . . It is not enough to simply say “We’re sorry!” So the U.S. must commit the hundreds of billions needed to fully rebuild Iraq.This is a workable plan. One percent is around $150 billion annually--approximately what we're spending annually on the war with no positive results. I pray that the Democrats come to their senses and cut off funding for the war and divert it into reconstruction.
Yet the rebuilding of Iraq should only be part of a larger Global Marshall Plan which the U.S. should announce now—to commit at least 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the U.S. each year for the next twenty years toward the goal of eliminating global and domestic poverty, homelessness, inadequate health care, inadequate education, and for repairing the environment. Just as the first Marshall Plan allocated 1.5–2% of GDP after the Second World War to the rebuilding of Europe, this second Marshall Plan, extended to the rest of the world, will provide far more homeland security for the U.S. than the currently planned military spending that will squander our resources.
