Who would Jesus bomb?
Christmas Day, 2009
Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation Peace Vigil
Percival Landing, Olympia, Washington
War is immoral. All war begins with aggression. Aggression is immoral. Military aggression is widely considered immoral, and there are numerous international legally binding treaties established against war of aggression. It is probably unanimous amongst international political bodies that aggression is immoral and illegal. How could it not be? If stealing is illegal, if rape is illegal, if murder is illegal - then how could the most horrendous violence possible - the violence of a war of aggression - ever be considered legal.
Self-defense is one thing. A reasonable and proportional self-defense against immediate attack. But the wars of the United States of America are a different beast. The wars of the USA are not truly self-defense - nor a legitimate protection of "national interest." What the wars of the USA defend is the selfishness and the greed of the USA. The wars are an effort to further international policies of and practices of oppression and exploitation, under which the USA operates. The wars of the USA do not truly defend the national interest. The wars and international policies of the USA defend the corporate interest - the interest of the most influential and powerful (typically multi-national) giant corporations.
War is immoral. For good reason. War is the worst violence known to humanity. War is waste. It is oblivion. War is destruction defined.
People and nations have a right to defend themselves. But people and nations do not have a right - and in fact they betray the rights of all people - when they commit the crime of a war of aggression.
The wars of the USA are aggressive wars - imperialistic wars - wars designed to further the establishment of dominance - of global hegemony.
I believe that the imperialism of the USA (and the giant corporations that are the keepers of the US Government) is the worst violence known to modern humanity.
But this perspective - these truths - are very effectively kept away from the American people. These truths are hidden by a mutually reinforcing relationship between (among other things) the effects of a fear based and oppressive culture, and a media establishment that incessantly propagates the myth of American altruism.
There is a horrible myth in today's America, and to a lesser extent in today's world. It is the myth that America is the greatest nation on Earth - when in reality, the very opposite may be true. It may be more true that America is the worst nation on Earth - that America is the world's greatest perpetrator of violence and oppression - even to the point of wars of aggression, conquest and imperialism.
In America, terrible violence is part of mainstream culture. In America, there is a disparity in wealth between rich and poor that is maintained through systematic oppression.
In America, some people make profit when bombs are dropped. People profit when wars are waged. People profit from harmful, destructive, violent economic (and anti-economic) activities!
So, really, I ask you to please answer this question: who would Jesus bomb?