"Is There Anything Left That Matters?"

[Crimson and Clover]

by Joan Chittister, OSB
---------------------------
This is what I don't understand: All of a sudden nothing seems
to matter.

First, they said they wanted Bin Laden "dead or alive." But they
didn't get him. So now they tell us that it doesn't matter. Our
mission is greater than one man.

Then they said they wanted Saddam Hussein, "dead or alive." He's
apparently alive but we haven't got him yet, either. However,
President Bush told reporters recently, "It doesn't matter. Our
mission is greater than one man."

Finally, they told us that we were invading Iraq to destroy their
weapons of mass destruction. Now they say those weapons probably
don't exist. Maybe never existed. Apparently that doesn't matter
either. Except that it does matter.

I know we're not supposed to say that. I know it's called
"unpatriotic." But it's also called honesty. And dishonesty
matters.

It matters that the infrastructure of a foreign nation that
couldn't defend itself against us has been destroyed on the
grounds that it was a military threat to the world.

It matters that it was destroyed by us under a new doctrine of
"pre-emptive war" when there was apparently nothing worth
pre-empting.

It surely matters to the families here whose sons went to war to
make the world safe from weapons of mass destruction and will
never come home.

It matters to families in the United States whose life support
programs were ended, whose medical insurance ran out, whose food
stamps were cut off, whose day care programs were eliminated so
we could spend the money on sending an army to do what did not
need to be done.

It matters to the Iraqi girl whose face was burned by a lamp that
toppled over as a result of a U.S. bombing run.

It matters to Ali, the Iraqi boy who lost his family - and both
his arms - in a U.S. air attack.

It matters to the people in Baghdad whose water supply is now
fetid, whose electricity is gone, whose streets are unsafe, whose
158 government ministries' buildings and all their records have
been destroyed, whose cultural heritage and social system has
been looted and whose cities teem with anti-American protests.

It matters that the people we say we "liberated" do not feel
liberated in the midst of the lawlessness, destruction and
wholesale social suffering that so-called liberation created.

It matters to the United Nations whose integrity was impugned,
whose authority was denied, whose inspection teams are even now
still being overlooked in the process of technical evaluation and
disarmament.

It matters to the reputation of the United States in the eyes of
the world, both now and for decades to come, perhaps.

And surely it matters to the integrity of this nation whether or
not its intelligence gathering agencies have any real
intelligence or not before we launch a military armada on its
say-so.

And it should matter whether or not our government is either
incompetent and didn't know what they were doing or were
dishonest and refused to say.

The unspoken truth is that either as a people we were misled, or
we were lied to, about the real reason for this war. Either we
made a huge - and unforgivable - mistake, an arrogant or ignorant
mistake, or we are swaggering around the world like a blind
giant, flailing in all directions while the rest of the world
watches in horror or in ridicule.

If Bill Clinton's definition of "is" matters, surely this
matters. If a president's sex life matters, surely a president's
use of global force against some of the weakest people in the
world matters. If a president's word in a court of law about a
private indiscretion matters, surely a president's word to the
community of nations and the security of millions of people
matters.

And if not, why not? If not, surely there is something as wrong
with us as citizens, as thinkers, as Christians as there must be
with some facet of the government. If wars that the public says
are wrong yesterday - as over 70% of U.S. citizens did before the
attack on Iraq - suddenly become "right" the minute the first
bombs drop, what kind of national morality is that?

Of what are we really capable as a nation if the considered
judgment of politicians and people around the world means nothing
to us as a people?

What is the depth of the American soul if we can allow
destruction to be done in our name and the name of "liberation"
and never even demand an accounting of its costs, both personal
and public, when it is over?

We like to take comfort in the notion that people make a
distinction between our government and ourselves. We like to say
that the people of the world love Americans, they simply mistrust
our government. But excoriating a distant and anonymous
"government" for wreaking rubble on a nation in pretense of good
requires very little of either character or intelligence.

What may count most, however, is that we may well be the ones
Proverbs warns when it reminds us: "Kings take pleasure in honest
lips; they value the one who speaks the truth." The point is
clear: If the people speak and the king doesn't listen, there is
something wrong with the king. If the king acts precipitously and
the people say nothing, something is wrong with the people.

It may be time for us to realize that in a country that prides
itself on being democratic, we are our government. And the rest
of the world is figuring that out very quickly.

From where I stand, that matters.

[ABlairican Pie]

This is a great article! I actually posted it a while back...

But it bears repeating. I wonder if people would like to know what godless commie pinko would write this thing... She's a Benedictine Sister.

[ABlairican Pie]

I am sick to death that "Evangelical" "Christians" have surrendered their social responsibility by electing a president who has no conscience and still claims that "Jesus touched my heart"...
Of course there are good Evangelicals like Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis and some others, but most "Born Again" Christians tow the party line.

[Kitt]

Allow me to break it down from the article, and reiterate what Captain was fuming about.

"We like to take comfort in the notion that people make a distinction between our government and ourselves. We like to say
that the people of the world love Americans, they simply mistrust
our government. But excoriating a distant and anonymous
"government" for wreaking rubble on a nation in pretense of good requires very little of either character or intelligence."

[ABlairican Pie]

Originally posted by Kitt
Allow me to break it down from the article, and reiterate what Captain was fuming about.

"We like to take comfort in the notion that people make a distinction between our government and ourselves. We like to say
that the people of the world love Americans, they simply mistrust
our government. But excoriating a distant and anonymous
"government" for wreaking rubble on a nation in pretense of good requires very little of either character or intelligence."

Makes me think of the issue of COMPLICITY, like in that article you were telling me about with the lawyer in Nazi Germany. Great article!!