To war? Questions before the invasion
Garvey, John
JOHN GARVEY TO WAR What about the Iraqi people? OF SEVERAL HINDS As we mark the anniversary of September 11, we can reflect-with some humility-on how we have not been changed into a better and...
...After telling Beyea's nurse's aide to leave, because she had children to think of, Zelmanowitz refused to leave his friend alone...
...But there seems to be an assumption on all sides that at some point, within the next few months perhaps, we will go to war against Iraq...
...And this is a problem for those of us who do not consider ourselves pacifists: how we measure the distance between ourselves and the abstract judgment of what needs to be done to contain the evil-and it is real evil-of Saddam Hussein, and the fact that we are called to exemplify the love of one who could die for each of us, like Christ, or sit and die with us, like Abraham Zelmanowitz...
...We saw so much compassion, from so many, immediately following the attack on the World Trade Center...
...There has been some discussion of the economic consequences, and a concern about all of the possible unintended consequences...
...a couple of Republicans-most notably Indiana Senator Richard Lugar-have called for a serious debate...
...One of the most moving stories was the story of the courage and compassion of Abraham Zelmanowitz, an observant Jew whose remains were identified only a few weeks ago, and were flown to Israel for burial...
...Remember the solemn sense, following the first attack on our nation since World War II, that now irony was dead...
...We have changed in some ways...
...What moves me so much about this story is that we are all called to this compassion, and are so far from it-and yet we are called to, driven to, this willingness to suffer with our brothers and sisters...
...The absence of a real debate about the wisdom of extending the war against terror to include what will surely be a ground war against Iraq is disturbing...
...They are not broadly supportive of Saddam, not as Germans were supportive of Hitler...
...Nor has any Arab state, or any of our allies...
...They are victims now, and will suffer even more if we should go to war...
...No brief can be made for Saddam Hussein, of course...
...There were the heroic efforts of the firefighters, rescuers, and police...
...We talk seriously about being at war now, but not seriously enough...
...but the mood passed, and our movie theaters once again boom with loud, bright explosions...
...But consider the fact that Israel-much more threatened by Iraq than we are, much closer and more vulnerable-has not jumped on the war wagon...
...Of course, someone will answer, What will all of us suffer, and how much more, if Saddam is allowed to proceed with the development of lethal weapons...
...Nor have the Kurds, a people Saddam has already gassed...
...The great problem is that he is less likely to suffer, and much less likely to die, than tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians...
...It is hard to think of a compassion that exceeds this...
...When the towers were attacked, Beyea was unable to descend the stairs...
...And now we have the Osbournes, reality TV, a new show featuring former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, known mostly for her weight gain and widowhood...
...but what is most disturbing is the apparent absence of compassion for the people of Iraq...
...Many writers and lawyers-but too few politicians- worry about the erosion of civil liberties...
...With the exception of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, Democrats are afraid to seem unpatriotic...
...Matthew 25 is to be our measure: whatever we do, or fail to do, for our suffering brothers or sisters is the standard by which we will be judged, and those brothers and sisters include every single soul in Iraq...
...Faced with our greatest moral, political, and military challenge in decades, we would become a more inward people, we would be grave, our laughter forever tempered...
...He is at least as wicked as the administration says he is...
...There were the phone calls from the towers and the airplanes, messages of love...
...OF SEVERAL HINDS As we mark the anniversary of September 11, we can reflect-with some humility-on how we have not been changed into a better and more serious people...
...it's become part of our self-understanding...
...For a brief period, moviemakers were shy about violence on screen...
...One of his fellow workers, a Catholic named Edward Beyea, was a quadriplegic...
...Zelmanowitz worked as a computer programmer...
...We know all that...
...In all the talk about Saddam and "weapons of mass destruction," there is so little consideration of the Iraqi people, and of what they will suffer...
...And it was remarkable: all New Yorkers remember the unusual tenderness that enveloped the city in the days following the attack...
...He stayed with him, and died with him...
Vol. 129 • September 2002 • No. 15
