Catalyst

Presidential Veto Threatens an Easter Resurrection in Iraq

In recent weeks, supplemental funding legislation for the war in Iraq has passed both the House and the Senate. Media attention focused on the inclusion in both versions of language around the withdrawal of troops: the House version included a timetable and the Senate version a “commencement date” for withdrawal from Iraq.

In the shadow of such significant statements, lesser-known aspects of the versions which would be important steps forward in Iraq did not receive the media attention they deserved. For example:

• Most importantly, both versions provide increased funding for the Community Action Programs (CAPs), small development programs run by Iraqis for Iraqis, which have been 98% effective at maintaining stability and development where they have been implemented.
• The Senate version allocates $100 million for restarting factories in Iraq—a move that would provide employment for 150,000 Iraqis if the 143 formerly state-run enterprises that Under Secretary of Defense Paul A. Brinkley has already identified are reopened.
• Both bills significantly increase the funding for assistance for Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons.
• Both bills drastically increase funding for civil society, democracy, and peace-building support, to over $380 million.
• Both bills extend the mission of SIGIR, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, through December of 2008. SIGIR has been instrumental in uncovering billions of dollars lost to corruption and misuse of funds in Iraq.

My blog entry from December, highlighted some of the commonalities between recommendations made by the Iraq Study Group and the U.S. bishops for a new course of action in Iraq. Both proposals recognized a failure in U.S. policy in Iraq due to an inflated dependence on military efforts to end the conflict. Improved reconstruction efforts and international diplomacy were two key ideas in need of attention, both documents said. The funding priorities contained in the supplemental spending bills—for development programs, job creation, and humanitarian assistance, for example—would be a big step toward meeting the first of those goals.

What is missing from the policy arena now is any trace of a verbalized strategy to move the Iraq conflict into the global arena where an internationally or regionally-led solution can take the place of the U.S.-led efforts—which by now have lost the confidence of all meaningful observers in reaching a viable solution to the conflict.

Unfortunately, even if the House and Senate can now reconcile their versions of the supplemental spending bill and come up with a plan for meeting reconstruction needs, the final result is likely to be vetoed upon reaching the president’s desk because of the withdrawal date language. But the step in the right direction that the bill would provide is too important to let go of as a fleeting moment in congressional history.

The challenge for us as people of faith and concerned citizens is to ensure that our leaders acknowledge the importance of many positive and essential elements for reconstruction that are currently on the table and that these ideas last beyond the likely veto. Even if there can be no immediate political agreement on the issue of withdrawal, many of the provisions currently included in the supplemental bills could do a lot of good, and quickly. On the other hand, if we fail to provide funding for development, job creation, humanitarian assistance, and monitoring, things will only get worse.

As we, as Christians, celebrate one of the most important events of our faith this Sunday, the resurrection of Christ, we should also remember to make our voices heard: the Iraqi people are badly in need of an Easter Resurrection and unless we do something quickly, it may never come.

by Jill Rauh, Senior Program Associate, Education for Justice Project, Center of Concern

NOTE: Many thanks to Simone Campbell, of NETWORK for her concise but thorough briefing on the supplemental legislation passed in Congress.

Finding Our Way

Who do people say that we are, as Americans?  We used to know and be proud. 

We were a nation, welcoming

"... your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

We were the nation where anyone who worked hard and played by the rules could succeed and support themselves and their families.

Now corporate-designed globalization and outsourcing have removed the American Dream of prosperity from the reach of all but a few of the wealthiest, while workers’ pension funds are collapsing and stories of corporate and political corruption fill the media.  Our national budget shows us to be turning our backs on the poor and needy, handing more power and wealth to the already powerful and wealthy.  Ensuring that too many people never get a fair shot in life.

We were the most powerful and secure nation in the world, working for the peace and freedom of all nations. 

Now we launch, support and promise more preemptive wars, wars very costly in human lives, resources, and global reputation, wars that cannot be won by sheer military force.  As a nation, we invest vast amounts of resources in trying to dominate the world through “shock and awe” rather than win its friendship with generous, fair and mutually respectful policies of support and care.

We were a nation committed to human rights, support and opportunities for people in need, democratic values, generous neighborly relations with the rest of the world. 

Now we continue our human rights rhetoric while torturing prisoners held without charge and violating the civil rights protections of our own citizens. 

We were a religious nation, welcoming people of all faiths and nations to live in peace side by side with us as a witness to the world of the oneness of the human family. 

Now we send vigilantes to our borders and build walls instead of golden doors to keep out the tired and poor who are yearning to feed their families – because they don’t obey our laws.  If Jesus were to come as an immigrant from South of our border, he would have to wait years for a legal visa.

We are a nation headed in the wrong direction, and now the majority of us know it and are willing to say so.  We are a nation headed for an election, a chance to begin to shift direction. 

But we are also a nation deeply divided, and a nation plagued with too many leaders who see aggravating and manipulating the divisions as in their political advantage.  Sound-bite slogans, name-calling and negative campaigning are the strategies of choice over thoughtful dialogue seeking solutions that bridge our differences and serve higher community values.  If they are successful, as they have been for several years, they will win and we will all continue to lose.

How can we find our way again?  How can we find a path that embraces our best values? 

In complex societies, it is rare that a single leader can stand up and rally most of the people.  In a society as purposefully divided as ours, it is practically impossible.  We need to stop waiting and hoping for our Moses, our Jesus, our Muhammed, our Gandhi – even our Martin Luther King, Jr.  We need to bring to voice the Spirit given to each of us, and to us collectively, to shape the vision grounded in our best values that can guide our voting, our policies and our public life.

We, at the Center of Concern, hope this forum is one way to bring together diverse voices in a discussion on finding a new path toward a fair and prosperous future.  Please share your thoughts on current issues confronting our country.  We have some ideas on pressing issues, and those will be addressed in future postings, but we also want to hear your thoughts and ideas.  Together we can find our way.

Posted by Jim Hug, SJ - President, Center of Concern