US churches call Bush plan to send more troops to Iraq “immoral”

2007 January 11

On January 10, US President George W. Bush announced in a televised address his administration’s ‘new’ strategy on Iraq: the deployment of 21,500 additional American troops, a plan that carries a price tag of US$6.8 billion and no clear timetable. (Full text of the Bush televised address)

Increased troop imvolvement will only mean more American and Iraqi deaths, thus making Bush’s new plan “morally unsupportable”, according to a statement of the National Council of Churches in the USA. In a similar statement, the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society challenged US legislators to oppose Bush plans to send more troops to Iraq and called on the American public to rally for an end to the Iraq War.

National Council of Churches in the USA

NCC Response to the President’s Plan
to Escalate US Troop Involvement in Iraq War

President George W. Bush is calling for a “surge” in troops in Iraq, ostensibly to help quell sectarian violence and stabilize Baghdad. This escalation of troop presence only promises to guarantee an escalation in American and Iraqi deaths. Thus the call for more troops is morally unsupportable.

Particularly in the wake of the barbaric execution of Saddam Hussein—an act that reflects not the ideals of democracy and justice, but rather mocks them—and an act that promises only to breed more violence, as only a violent act can—one would think that the United States would immediately seek to bring about a change of policy. Sending more troops is not a change in policy, nor is it even a change in strategy; it is more of the same.

Certainly a change in policy was what the November election results were all about. And certainly a change in policy was the bottom-line recommendation of the Iraq Study Group, a collection of men and women chosen for their collective expertise and wisdom. Instead, the President has chosen to ignore both the electorate and the Iraq Study Group.

Given a chance to build broad consensus on a change of policy under the cover of the ISG Report, we have the makings of yet another divisive debate on whether or not the US should put more lives in harm’s way. It seems that we are fated never to learn an important lesson of the Vietnam era—that US leadership in the world does not depend on the continuation of failed policies—a lesson that became crystal clear during our recent funeral recollections of President Gerald Ford and his leadership.

It is time for moral strength, not military power, to take precedence in the US plan for Iraq.

It is time to recognize the failure of a military policy that is not promoting freedom, not ending terrorism, not building up the Iraqi nation, not bringing security to the region, and not making the world safer.

It is time—and here we agree with the President—to insist on political benchmarks for the Iraqi government, and to provide reconstruction aid to the Iraqi people, if it is not already too late. But the benchmarks must be achievable, and this time the disbursement of aid must be transparent.

It is time to enter into respectful negotiations with those countries in the region that can exert influence on Iraq; to attend to the central issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and to lead the United Nations Security Council in enforcing restrictions on arms proliferation in the region.

And above all, it is time, not to send more troops, but to start bringing our troops home.

The “surge” as recommended by the President is immoral. What we do not need is an assertion of more military strength. What we need is the strength of basic moral conviction.

The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society

Path to Peace

By JIM WINKLER

President Bush has spoken to the people of the United States and announced plans to escalate the war in Iraq. We are disappointed by the lack of vision and imagination which sees more force as the only answer. This is not a time to escalate a failed policy of war but to begin a serious attempt at a robust diplomatic effort.

Our Board’s October 2005 statement calling on the United States to work with the United Nations to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict still holds.

As the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. approaches, we are reminded of his prophetic words decrying the Vietnam War. Dr. King stated that given the widespread destruction caused by that war, the people of Vietnam must have seen us as “strange liberators.”* So, too, is the United States viewed today by the people of Iraq.

At least 5,000 Iraqi civilians are being killed each month. Civil war and ethnic cleansing in Iraq is now a reality. Millions of Iraqis have left their country and the Christian population has experienced disproportionate suffering. Iraq is in a shambles.

The President told us one of the big problems to date is the restriction placed on U.S. and Iraqi soldiers to pursue resistance fighters into their neighborhoods. Now, he says, U.S. soldiers will have a green light to attack and Iraqi forces will go door-to-door aiming to win the confidence of the people. We fear the plan is to carry out a more ferocious war in the midst of neighborhoods occupied by women, children, and poor people.

The President told us there will be more Iraqi and American deaths and we must exercise patience and resolve. He told us to prepare for more sacrifice. In direct contradiction of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group recommendations, the President ruled out cooperation with Iran and Syria to bring peace to Iraq.

In more than four years of war and preparation for war, President Bush has repeatedly said that his military leaders have told him they have sufficient troops to fight this war. Now, the President has changed course, overruling his generals by ordering up more than 20,000 additional soldiers even though he has been advised this will not work.

We call upon the U.S. Congress to oppose the President’s decision to send more troops to Iraq by withholding funds to escalate the war. We further urge Congress not to provide any additional money to continue the war this year. Congress should provide funding only to bring U.S. troops home and to aid in rebuilding Iraq.

We call upon United Methodists to join “America Says NO More Troops” and to participate in the January 27 rally in Washington to end the war in Iraq. Please visit www.unitedforpeace.org for more ways.

Please pray for peace in Iraq.

Date: 1/11/2007

* “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” 4 April 1967