Finding Our Way in Iraq

Following is a portion of an EthicsDaily.com editorial written by Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics:


... A better approach would be a new policy, one that begins with straight talk about the mistaken reasons for the war and develops a new strategy.

A new policy would necessitate a new leadership team, one in which hubris would be seen as a vice and humility would be accepted as a virtue. Bush’s current team has failed the nation. They no longer deserve the public’s trust.

A new policy would necessitate that the president discharges the religious right from his war council. After all, the religious right blessed the war, often supporting it as a holy crusade. Their moral arguments were badly flawed. The president listened to their affirmation, and the country has suffered dreadful results.

Most of the leadership of the faith community said the war did not pass the time-honored just war theory and cautioned against a rush to war. Had Bush listened to these leaders, he might well have avoided this disaster.

A new policy is unlikely unless Washington politicians hear clearly and repeatedly that local leaders expect real changes in the administration and a new policy in Iraq.

Christians of all stripes need to speak quickly and insistently from a moral vantage point to congressmen and senators about the need for change.

Clergy, in particular, need to offer moral direction to our elected officials. Like the prophet Amos, clergy need to call for a mighty river of change and let politicians work out the irrigation system.

A good time for these conversations is in August, while our elected leaders are on recess.

The old way is paved with destruction; the new way might provide a path to peace.