{"id":1213,"date":"2007-08-15T16:17:43","date_gmt":"2007-08-15T16:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godspolitics\/2007\/08\/reactivity-and-iraq-by-brian-m.html"},"modified":"2007-08-15T16:17:43","modified_gmt":"2007-08-15T16:17:43","slug":"reactivity-and-iraq-by-brian-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/08\/reactivity-and-iraq-by-brian-m.html","title":{"rendered":"Reactivity and Iraq by Brian McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his July 20 commentary, James W. Skillen<\/a> of the Center for Public
\nJustice struck a non-partisan note of honesty and
\nbalance that I wish I heard more often.<\/p>\n

He summarized the basic narrative of the Iraq War that both our
\npresident and his party and many Democrats seem to share:<\/p>\n

… first, America liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein; second, we returned
\nsovereignty to the Iraqi people; third, sectarian violence tragically
\nincreased; and now, in the fourth phase, we are “deploying
\nreinforcements and launching new operations to help Iraqis bring
\nsecurity to their people.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The elegant word Skillen chooses to describe this narrative is “delusional.”<\/p>\n

He counters:<\/p>\n

U.S. forces did not liberate Iraq; they wiped out its
\ngovernment, and the Bush administration then failed to exercise
\nAmerican responsibility to govern the country so it could be rebuilt
\nand eventually governed by Iraqis themselves. We opened the floodgates
\nto chaos, civil war, the death or flight of tens of thousands of Iraqi
\ncivilians, and a continuing influx of terrorists whom our ‘war’ was
\nsupposed to destroy. That is not liberation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He follows with a withering critique of both the “stay the course”
\nproposal of the executive branch and the quick withdrawal plans
\nincreasingly popular in Congress. Both lines of reasoning, he says,
\nlay the blame for our dilemma on “the nearly powerless Iraqi
\ngovernment for not climbing out fast enough from the hole we dug for
\nit.” We may well criticize the Iraqi government for taking a long
\nsummer vacation in the midst of its crisis, but that doesn’t negate
\nour culpability for them being in this particular crisis in the first
\nplace.<\/p>\n

He chooses another elegant word to describe a nation that creates a
\ncrisis and then blames the victims for it: “immoral.”<\/p>\n

Delusional and immoral are strong words. Whether you believe the
\ninvasion was an ill-conceived and badly-planned mistake or you believe
\nthat the invasion was justifiable
\nbut the problems have been in the execution, either way, we’re in a
\nmess. We need a way out.<\/p>\n

A friend of mine says that we’re only as sick as our reactivity. If
\nour reactivity to Sept. 11 played a part in getting us into this terrible
\nsituation, we will not be well served by reacting to the status quo
\nwith still more reactive behavior.<\/p>\n

For those of us who supported the war, and for those of us who opposed
\nit but failed to stand up and speak up strongly enough, this is not a
\ntime for reactive behavior. It’s an opportunity, as Senator Obama
\nrecently said, to be as careful in planning our next steps as we were
\ncareless in planning our steps in the past. With more foresight and
\nforethought, with less blame-gaming and partisanship and more
\ndeliberate collaboration, we can take the next steps\u2014whatever they
\nwill be\u2014with more honor, intelligence, sanity, and responsibility,
\nand less reactivity than we have employed so far. Voices like
\nSkillens’ can slow us down to indulge in second and third thoughts,
\nperhaps breaking the cycle of unwise and destructive reactivity into
\nwhich we have plunged the Iraqis and ourselves.<\/p>\n

Brian McLaren<\/strong> (brianmclaren.net<\/a>) serves as board chair for Sojourners\/Call to Renewal. His next book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope<\/em>, will be released in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his July 20 commentary, James W. Skillen of the Center for Public Justice struck a non-partisan note of honesty and balance that I wish I heard more often. He summarized the basic narrative of the Iraq War that both our president and his party and many Democrats seem to share: … first, America liberated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-war"],"yoast_head":"\nReactivity and Iraq by Brian McLaren - God's Politics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/08\/reactivity-and-iraq-by-brian-m.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reactivity and Iraq by Brian McLaren - God's Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his July 20 commentary, James W. 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