Mennonite Weekly Review

Did nonviolent Christians spend all our passion for peace on the war in Iraq? It is time to speak up again. Antiwar voices are stirring as Afghanistan turns bloodier.

In August, this year became the deadliest for foreign soldiers in Afghanistan. When an explosion killed four U.S. soldiers Aug. 25, the 2009 death toll climbed to 295. As casualties rise, so does disillusionment with the war. A poll by ABC News and The Washington Post found pro-war sentiment had slipped below a majority: 51 percent of Americans said they believed the war was not worth the cost.

President Obama’s attachment to the war in Afghanistan looks hauntingly similar to George W. Bush’s fixation on Iraq and Lyndon Johnson’s descent into the pit of Vietnam. “A war of necessity,” Obama has called it, “fundamental to the defense of our people.” But as the war approaches its ninth year, fewer Americans find his words convincing. More people see the war’s purpose as vague, the prospect of success slim.

What would it take to get Americans to urge an end to this war, as they finally demanded on Iraq (though the U.S. troop presence will extend through 2011) and Vietnam? Tragically, in both cases, it took thousands of U.S. soldiers’ deaths. This time, there is cause for hope that the tide of public opinion might turn sooner. Peacemaking Christians should be among the leaders of this movement, not lag quietly behind.

Would political decision-makers heed a call to peace? The example of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy offers hope. Kennedy, who died Aug. 25, had the courage to speak out against the Iraq war when it was unpopular to do so. He called his vote in the Senate against the war the best vote of his career.

Today, Kennedy’s opposition to invading Iraq — a lonely position in 2002 and 2003 — is widely acclaimed for its foresight. “War with Iraq,” he said on Sept. 27, 2002, “could swell the ranks of al-Qaida sympathizers and trigger an escalation in terrorist attacks.” Events proved him right. He died without the regret that haunts lawmakers, members of the media and citizens who backed a disastrous war.

Kennedy was not a saint or a pacifist. But we don’t expect politicians or U.S. foreign policy to follow the Sermon on the Mount. We do expect wisdom, restraint, compassion and creativity. We engage a fallen world with a prayer that political leaders will live up to the nation’s best ideals of freedom and justice. At the same time, we hold ourselves and the church to Jesus Christ’s higher standard of sacrificial peacemaking.

Kennedy spoke with passion, even anger, against the Iraq war. His voice will be missed in Washington. Elected officials need support to show the courage he did. It has been a long eight years, but peace-seeking Christians hope passion still burns against America’s other war.