The Voices in the Wilderness

Reality is finally setting in on Capital Hill. This week, when a Democratic senator asked Robert Gates, "Do you believe we are winning the war in Iraq"? Gates replied simply, "No, sir." This remarkable exchange took place during Gates' confirmation hearing for his newly appointed position as chair of the Senate Armed Services, and with that simple "No, sir"; Gates contradicted everything the Bush Administration has said for the last four years. How striking it is when truth shines through a cloud of ignorance.

This current administration has been in denial for too long, and now voices crying out in the wilderness are screaming the loudest. When Sojourners magazine founder Jim Wallis spoke to us last year, he announced that the "wind is changing in Washington". Wallis must be a prophet. Warmonger John Bolton, now the ex-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, turned in his resignation card this week. Bolton, whom Bush appointed without Senate confirmation, was known for attacking the U.N. more than working with it, and he has now joined the ever growing number of other neoconservatives who led the charge into Iraq but are now out of the game.

The game is in the 9th inning and our team's worst player is at the plate. I'm reminded of that May 2, 2003 day when Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and posed for pictures under a banner reading, "Mission Accomplished". Later that same night, Bush delivered a speech to the Nation declaring that all major combat operations in Iraq have ended. Now more than 3 years, 2,900 U.S. deaths, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths later; President Bush finally admitted yesterday in elementary style, "It's bad in Iraq".

I can't help but be honest and believe that the "terrorists" should have been the ones celebrating under a "Mission Accomplished" banner that day. The United States did exactly what the "terrorists" and other "freedom haters" wanted it to do. We dehumanized Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent and branded them enemies and evil doers. When Bush first declared a "crusade", it was evident that we had the Christian God on our side too. With this, Bush convinced evangelical Christian's nation-wide that this was a war against God's country.

It's a dangerous idea to make enemies, and this Bush Administration has mastered the art. It's what they devote most of their time, money, and mouths to doing. Bush, who once claimed Jesus to be his favorite philosopher, must have a dusty Bible because that very philosopher says plain and simple to "love your enemies". Now that we've seen that responding to terror with more terror, and violence with more violence doesn't work, can just give love a try?

There is more hope for change and an end to this unethical, unjust, illegal war. More and more of the leaders who chose to live by the sword, are now perishing by it. The voices in the wilderness, once a small minority, are growing and getting louder with each day gone by.