Theological Implications for Justice in Iraq

By Gideon G. Ireri

Any government, even the most dictatorial one, needs to be sure of popular support before engaging in war. For instance, each government that declared war in 1914 was concerned with winning maximum public approval. We know the French were fighting to defend against a new German invasion; the Germans were fighting to defend against the Cossack hordes, and so on.

When the Bush administration decided to go to war with Iraq last year, the U.S. and its allies were able to fight the war because many (though not all) of their citizens accepted, without hesitation, the necessity of it. Like the First World War, the war in Iraq appeared or was presented to people as an inescapable necessity if they were to preserve their homes and country from acts of terrorism.

It was the CIA director's responsibility to convince the Bush administration beyond a doubt that there was every reason to occupy Iraq. There were weapons of mass destruction to be destroyed; humanity deserved to enjoy freedom and democracy. Over a year later, we know that no such weapons have been found. Consequently, the CIA director has resigned under mounting public criticism for his ineptitude, including the failure to predict or prevent the September 11 attacks.

President Bush did not hold back in commending his outgoing CIA director this month, but many observers . . . saw his resignation as leaving a vacuum. One could say that Judas Iscariot was missed in a similar way by Jews and Romans after he committed suicide. Both these men showed a guilty conscience.

President Bush did not hold back in commending his outgoing CIA director this month, but many observers, including Carl Ford, former assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research for the Bush administration, saw his resignation as leaving a vacuum. One could say that Judas Iscariot was missed in a similar way by Jews and Romans after he committed suicide. Both these men showed a guilty conscience.

As we approach the date of the transfer of sovereignty, Iraq is a wounded country, torn apart by conflict and war. Foreign superpowers have oppressed and exploited its people beyond measure and justice and mercy in the name of the war on terrorism. The U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the false evidence provided by its intelligence officer challenge us to reflect on these events not only on a political, but also a theological level. As the Anglican Peace and Justice Network (APJN) noted in New Zealand during its meeting of November 23-30, 2001:

“What happened in the United States on September 11, 2001, is indeed a tragedy to that country and cannot be justified. Our hearts go out to people there in this time of disaster and sorrow.   However, this is also a time in which we believe God is calling all of us, and especially the United States, both political and religious to wake up and listen” ( APJN Report , p.18).

But why should we wake up and listen when Osama bin Laden, the chief architect and the mastermind of acts of terrorism in the world, has not been captured like Saddam Hussein? Why should the people of God and especially the United States wake up and listen when the freedom, democracy and the peace of humanity is threatened by terrorism and weapons of mass destruction? What kind of voice is God calling us all, and especially the United States and her allies, to wake up and listen to? Are the oppressed and the downtrodden people of Iraq ready to participate in our God's calling: to wake up and listen to Him and to one another?

God as the author of peace is calling all of us, the people of God, United States and her allies, the Iraqi people and all nations “to come now and reason together” (Isaiah 1:18). God is calling the nations living in conflict and war to dialogue where a choice has to be made – the choice between “life and good, and death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15).  

There has been violence and bloodshed in the world because nations have refused to enter into honest dialogues.

Tribes living in the Great Rift Valley, Western and Coast Provinces of Kenya started land ethnic conflicts in 1991 because there was little dialogue. Our Justice, Peace, Reconciliation and Advocacy Desk initiated the “Empowerment for Reconciliation and Peace with Justice Project” to make sure that communities in clashes were in dialogue. The freedom fighters in Kenya and South Africa had a long struggle as they fought for independence from colonial and apartheid systems. Both the oppressed and the oppressor, the ruler and the ruled had to wake up and listen to the call of a God who frees, unites and restores human dignity. But before God could intervene, both natives (in Kenya and South Africa) had to “work out their own liberation” through organized political movements of independence, like the Mau Mau in Kenya and the mass actions of South Africa. The dialogue has to take a centre stage so that blacks, coloured and whites can all live without suspicion, prejudice and racism in a world torn apart by suicidal bombings, drug trafficking and dehumanization.

The U.S. and its allies, even with all of their war casualties, should remember that they are living in the midst of another people's tragedy. . . God's justice does not stand apart from God's love and mercy. The U.S. and its allies must be God's agents of change.

The Iraqi people have been waiting in anxiety to regain their sovereignty and begin a new republic. If it fails to take place, it will not just be justice delayed but justice denied. The U.S. and its allies, even with all of their war casualties, should remember that they are living in the midst of another people's tragedy. Just as Americans were once colonized people who turned violent against their real oppressors, the Iraqis find it difficult to be nonviolent in a context that breeds so much state violence every day, one that brings dehumanization, deportation, torture and all kinds of injustice to them. They have every right to be free given that no weapons of mass destruction have been found yet. God's justice does not stand apart from God's love and mercy. The U.S. and its allies must be God's agents of change.

“There are no dichotomies in the person of God; the dichotomies lie in humanity.” (Naim Ateek)

With the June 30 transfer of power, we trust that this new era will be a time of joy and peace (Isaiah 65:17-19). But as the new nations in Africa experienced when they removed imperialism's yoke in the 1960's, it will be also a period of national reconstruction. Think of the unhappy peasants whose crops were destroyed on the eve of harvest and whose homes were leveled by artillery of bombing! Men, children and women in Iraq will gradually begin to enjoy the fruit of their labours.

But there is need to establish honest and democratic leadership in Iraq. It is our prayer and hope that the “agents of change” will place in the positions of authority “able men among the (Iraqis), men who fear God, are trustworthy and hate dishonest gain” over the citizens of this deprived country (Exodus 18:21).

Out of the ruins of Afghanistan cities, of Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Iraq's historical museums, can come the building of a new peace and world order. The people of God – in the U.S., Iraq, Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam, New York, Washington, Madrid, London, Baghdad and Jerusalem – should always look ahead to a restored community. And their dreams should be of a redeemed community.

There are elements in the life of God's people which persist through the disasters of September 11, 2001 or the invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led forces last year. And they are not to be regarded merely as oddments salvaged from the wreck. Rather, they are the keel and the ribs of the vessel which has had much of its parts stripped away. From these pieces can come rebuilding and reconstruction, and God will be in the midst of it, just as he was in the days of the biblical prophets.

Beyond the horror and despair there is hope. We trust and pray that this, though the worst period in Iraq, is also the last war that the government being established at the end of June will have to face. After this period of war, God's people should be given a chance to enter a new age.

The Rt. Rev. Gideon G. Ireri is bishop of Mbeere, Kenya, and also coordinates the Anglican Province of Kenya's Justice, Peace, Reconciliation, and Advocacy program. He may be reached by email at ackenya@insightkenya.com .