3RD ANNUAL APPEAL FOR--UNJUST WAR REMEMBRANCE DAY--MARCH 19

Photo on 1-20-2005, President George W. Bush's 2nd Inauguration Day, of child whose parents were just shot & killed in car at checkpoint, in Tal Afar, Iraq, by U.S. forces. [Another view from one in my Feb. 4, 2010 posting.] Uncounted children and parents have been killed there before and since. An untold number of U.S. soldiers have been witness to such unnecessary violence.

March 19 is also feast of St. Joseph.

Father & Son, Abu Graeb Prison, Iraq

As an abundantly blessed nominally Christian nation, we should be the first in the world’s history to admit the terrible mistake of unjust war, before forced to by defeat or self-depletion. This should happen on March 19th the day we invaded Iraq in 2003. It would be a day dedicated to disarmament, international justice and conflict resolution.

For God’s grace let us continue to pray, to name this day in the U.S.A., “Unjust War Remembrance Day.” When we invaded Iraq, March 19, 2003, with the slimmest possibility of finding even one nuclear weapon [when Israeli neighbors have hundreds, and we thousands], we tried to change our national justification of war, from defensive move of last resort, to preemptive war—a war of convenience, for perceived benefits. The people of the United States and the people of Iraq will be paying for this for years to come. It will be redeeming to our true national interests, if we remember that war is a bad tree, and you can never get good fruit from a bad tree. The evil of war is always multiplied, as one side is always unjust, and both sides take up evil means.

his idea should be re-introduced each year until we adopt it as a country to celebrate conversion from the way of un-necessary institutionalized wars. It took decades to establish Martin Luther King Day in the U.S., a step towards renouncing racism. It will take as long to declare an Unjust War Remembrance Day, to begin fully dismantling all weapons of mass destruction, and their fundamental nation-state war mentality. But we need to be first in calling all nations to the cause persistently, ourselves assuming world leadership in mea culpas, and practical steps.

embers of Congress and our county’s churches should start petitioning for this Day, as a national, even international, holiday. Almost all powerful countries have been morally, physically, and economically compromised by unjust war, most often of their own initiation.

ay we re-dedicate ourselves as we approach this Lenten season, to turning away from the pride of the single super-power. May we place our human and natural resources in the service of the ever merciful Creator God, origin of all the world’s peoples.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

Breastplate of St. Patrick Prayer [excerpt]

Illuminations by Kathy Brahney

Today is the feast day of St. Maximilian [d. 295 AD], one of the multitude of Early Christian faithful objectors to war. To the Roman authority he said, "I will never serve. You can cut off my head, but I will not be a soldier of this world, for I am a soldier of Christ. My army is the army of God, and I cannot fight for this world. I tell you I am a Christian."