Let peace-making begin
by Mary Hunt

The unspeakable acts of September 11 reinforce the fact that violence solves no problems. They also highlight the vulnerability of all human and earthly life to the fallout of unchecked rage. Such insights, when understood in a realistic and religious light, lead me to conclude that responses in kind are wrong both morally and strategically.

Terrorist acts do not make for war. They call for justice, which is adjudicated in the courts not on the battlefields. Thus, the United States government's reflexive response that war had been perpetrated on it was either a mistake or a tacit admission that its economic, military and political hegemony heretofore was its first salvo for which the plane bombs were a response. In either case, the military response harms innocent people, destroys the land and causes untold environmental damage. In my judgment, it is wrong.

Moreover, the tactic does not seem to be completing its objectives. The bombings of Afghanistan by the U.S., the escalating ground war, and threats of nuclear and chemical weapons show that violence escalates apace once it is sanctioned. We seem no closer now and perhaps more distant to a time when reasonable people might discuss differences. The argument that terrorists do no negotiate is well taken, but neither do superpowers when they insist on ultimatums.

Indeed there are more than two sides in this still nebulous conflict. Many countries initially supportive of the U.S. have had second thoughts as they see the oil interests rear their insatiable heads. No one supports the destruction of non-military targets like the Red Cross that was bombed twice by supposedly smart bombs or at least smart bombers. There are better ways, and seeing this as a criminal act that needs to be investigated and brought to a world court of justice is the most obvious.

Still not one dead innocent from the World Trade Center or the Pentagon or the Pennsylvania field has been brought back to life. They have only been joined in premature deaths by hundreds of Afghanis and thousand more who may starve this winter while we debate the merits of a just war and empty our older bombs on them that we might jumpstart our economy with the production of newer versions of the same.

I consider this a contradiction of everything we celebrate this holy season – of Ramadan's call to experience the hunger of the poor in order to allay it, and of Christianity's promise to wait in joyful hope for the coming of peace. Let the bombing cease and the hard work of peace-making begin.

Mary E. Hunt is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Md.