> Published on Thursday, May 29, 2003 by the National Catholic Reporter
> Is There Anything Left That Matters?
> by Joan Chittister, OSB
>
> This is what I don't understand: All of a sudden nothing seems to
> matter. First, they said they wanted Bin Laden "dead or alive." But they
> didn't get him. So now they tell us that it doesn't matter. Our mission
> is greater than one man. Then they said they wanted Saddam Hussein,
> "dead or alive." He's apparently alive but we haven't got him yet,
> either. However, President Bush told reporters recently, "It doesn't
> matter. Our mission is greater than one man." Finally, they told us that
> we were invading Iraq to destroy their weapons of mass destruction. Now
> they say those weapons probably don't exist. Maybe never existed.
> Apparently that doesn't matter either.
>
> Except that it does matter. I know we're not supposed to say that. I
> know it's called "unpatriotic." But it's also called honesty. And
> dishonesty matters. It matters that the infrastructure of a foreign
> nation that couldn't defend itself against us has been destroyed on the
> grounds that it was a military threat to the world. It matters that it
> was destroyed by us under a new doctrine of "pre-emptive war" when
> there was apparently nothing worth pre-empting.
>
> It surely matters to the families here whose sons went to war to make
> the world safe from weapons of mass destruction and will never come
> home. It matters to families in the United States whose life support
> programs were ended, whose medical insurance ran out, whose food stamps
> were cut off, whose day care programs were eliminated so we could spend
> the money on sending an army to do what did not need to be done.
>
> It matters to the Iraqi girl whose face was burned by a lamp that
> toppled over as a result of a U.S. bombing run. It matters to Ali, the
> Iraqi boy who lost his family - and both his arms - in a U.S. air
> attack. It matters to the people in Baghdad whose water supply is now
> fetid, whose electricity is gone, whose streets are unsafe, whose 158
> government ministries' buildings and all their records have been
> destroyed, whose cultural heritage and social system has been looted
> and whose cities teem with anti-American protests. It matters that the
> people we say we "liberated" do not feel liberated in the midst of the
> lawlessness, destruction and wholesale social suffering that so-called
> liberation created.
>
> It matters to the United Nations whose integrity was impugned, whose
> authority was denied, whose inspection teams are even now still being
> overlooked in the process of technical evaluation and disarmament. It
> matters to the reputation of the United States in the eyes of the world,
> both now and for decades to come, perhaps.
>
> And surely it matters to the integrity of this nation whether or not
> its intelligence gathering agencies have any real intelligence or not
> before we launch a military armada on its say-so. And it should matter
> whether or not our government is either incompetent and didn't know what
> they were doing or were dishonest and refused to say. The unspoken truth
> is that either as a people we were misled, or we were lied to, about the
> real reason for this war. Either we made a huge - and unforgivable -
> mistake, an arrogant or ignorant mistake, or we are swaggering around
> the world like a blind giant, flailing in all directions while the rest
> of the world watches in horror or in ridicule.
>
> If Bill Clinton's definition of "is" matters, surely this matters. If
> a president's sex life matters, surely a president's use of global force
> against some of the weakest people in the world matters. If a
> president's word in a court of law about a private indiscretion matters,
> surely a president's word to the community of nations and the security
> of millions of people matters. And if not, why not? If not, surely
> there is something as wrong with us as citizens, as thinkers, as
> Christians as there must be with some facet of the government. If wars
> that the public says are wrong yesterday - as over 70% of U.S. citizens
> did before the attack on Iraq - suddenly become "right" the minute the
> first bombs drop, what kind of national morality is that?
>
> Of what are we really capable as a nation if the considered judgment
> of politicians and people around the world means nothing to us as a
> people. What is the depth of the American soul if we can allow
> destruction to be done in our name and the name of "liberation" and
> never even demand an accounting of its costs, both personal and public,
> when it is over?
>
> We like to take comfort in the notion that people make a distinction
> between our government and ourselves. We like to say that the people of
> the world love Americans, they simply mistrust our government. But
> excoriating a distant and anonymous "government" for wreaking rubble on
> a nation in pretense of good requires very little of either character or
> intelligence. What may count most, however, is that we may well be the
> ones Proverbs warns when it reminds us: "Kings take pleasure in honest
> lips; they value the one who speaks the truth." The point is clear: If
> the people
> speak and the king doesn't listen, there is something wrong with the
> king. If the king acts precipitously and the people say nothing,
> something is wrong with the people. It may be time for us to realize
> that in a country that prides itself on being democratic, we are our
> government. And the rest of the world is figuring that out very quickly.
>
> From where I stand, that matters.
>
> A Benedictine Sister of Erie, Sister Joan is a best-selling author and
> well-known international lecturer. She is founder and executive director
> of Benetvision: A Resource and Research Center for Contemporary
> Spirituality, and past president of the Conference of American
> Benedictine Prioresses and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
> Sister Joan has been recognized by universities and national
> organizations for her work for justice, peace and equality for women
> in the Church and society. She is an active member of the International
> Peace Council.
>
>
> (Leave it to a Catholic voice to speak truth. Pete Martineau)
>
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>
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