You can hate the war but love the warriors

"Why did you speak at that anti-war demonstration and to that bunch of un-American protesters last Saturday in Gainesville? Don't you people understand that Saddam is dangerous and has to be stopped? I thought you were a veteran yourself. You are giving aid to our country's enemies," the person said to me.

Say what? Give me a break. A danger to whom? Us? Here in the good ole U.S. of A.?

Is Saddam's navy off our shores? Is his air force flying over our cities? Have his troops encircled our nation?

The only danger Saddam poses is to his neighbors, maybe, and they are so worried about him that they are willing to let us die for them, but they won't fight for themselves. And some even want us to pay them for the privilege.

"But," the person pressed on, "Saddam sponsors terrorism. We are in a war against terrorism. Don't you understand that?"

Well, I just hope and pray that we are more successful with the war on terror than we were with the war on poverty, the war against drugs, the war against racism, the war in Vietnam and countless other "wars" we have gotten ourselves involved in.

The thing that puzzles me is the disconnect President Bush suffers with regard to most of the other world leaders. Yet on second thought, it may not be so puzzling at all.

President Bush professes to be a born-again Christian conservative. In reality, he is a Christian fundamentalist who views the world divided into opposing camps: good versus evil, for us or against us, black and white, correct and incorrect. This "either/or" thinking leaves no room for "both/and" thinking. There is no room for compromise. There has to be a winner and a loser.

Christian fundamentalists believe the Bible to be literal truth and is a blueprint for the future, especially the Book of Revelation. The world is in the "end time" and the cataclysmic Battle of Armageddon will be the decisive turning point when the forces of good versus evil will meet on the battlefield in the Middle East. Naturally the "good" are us and the "evil" is them.

Christian fundamentalists honestly believe the Bible has foretold these events and there is nothing we can do to alter the outcome. We are mere helpless spectators. This fatalistic and frightful theology is held by millions of people, including the president of the United States.

Yes, that Saturday I was one of a number of people who came to Gainesville to show our desire for peace. We stood together in solidarity with millions of others around the world who oppose a war with Iraq. We believe there is no need for this war and that our government has and continues to lie to the American people about the need for this war.

Our rally was against the war, and not against our fighting men and women. We believe one can hate war but love the American warrior. We feel it is our patriotic duty to oppose killing our soldiers and the innocent people in Iraq. We feel the brutal dictatorship of Saddam can be defeated without slaughtering innocent people.

I personally believe the real danger to our Constitution is an "axis of evil" in our own government. Our nation is becoming an "Orwellian 1984" nightmare. Ben Franklin once said that "to trade freedom for security will result in losing both."

The silent majority in our nation needs to rise up and reclaim our republic from the fundamentalist mindset that holds it hostage.

Shalom!

This article was first published in the Gainesville Times March 17, 2003