CPTnet
1 August 2007
IRAQ REFLECTION: Warrior strategies
by Gene Stoltzfus
[Note: The following reflection appeared on the blog of CPT Director
Emeritus Gene Stoltzfus. It has been edited for length and clarity. People
wishing to see the original will find it at
http://www.gstoltzfus.blogspot.com/.]
When the war in Iraq began I knew that on military grounds alone, we were in
for a sustained epoch because the economies and faith convictions that hold
society together in the Middle East transcend nations. Invading one nation
affects the entire region. I also knew that there would be unexpected
explosions and new tensions between clans, religious bodies and nations.
Death and destruction would unravel tenuous alliances built up over
generations and centuries.
However, I naively thought that the U.S. military had thoroughly explored
lessons of Viet Nam other violent interventions and refined them into a
military doctrine that asserted the enemy would only be defeated by a
combination of positive social engagement, listening, and occasional use of
force. I thought that the professional military officers, in spite of the
short sightedness of the civilian leadership, had honed a doctrine of
warfare that required attention to people's needs for security, health and
hope for the future.
I was wrong, very wrong. The U.S. military entered Iraq with fire power and
a mission to kill the enemy and the expectation that this would lead to
liberation and democracy. The President's mission as delivered to
commanders had little to do with listening or the respectful treatment of
Iraqi institutions built up over generations.
Even as tragic events were unfolding in 2003, when I worked with CPT's Iraq
team, we found many Iraqis with great interest in expressions of nonviolence
to pre-empt the impending cycle of violence, but we lacked an overall
strategy that could encourage or channel this interest into effective Iraqi
action. We also lacked enough trained full time workers who knew how to
listen to Iraqis and think creatively and outside the box of orthodox
nonviolence.
The ineffective American battle plan called for what armies do best:
killing and breaking things. But as I watch the Iraq story unfold I have
an overwhelming sense that just like armies, peace people--including
myself--are locked into formulas for peace work: campaigns, demonstrations,
lobbying and occasional trainings that do not really envision a real world
without armies.
The catastrophe in Iraq could have created the space for Iraqi people to
create new strategies. In the absence of stronger support and strategies,
some found their way to safe places outside Iraq. Others joined the
insurgencies. They did not need training on how to do demonstrations or
listening to their people. They needed people to help create the space to
plan, to train and to talk back when only violent tactics of killing the
enemy were modeled. In the midst of debacles like the ones Iraqis are
facing, people are waiting and asking, "Where are the people with a strategy
and follow through of the things that make for peace?"
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Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in
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