by Peggy Gish

With international friends we recently watched a film, The Boy with the Blue Striped Pajamas, a touching, but tragic story of a German boy whose father is an SS officer and overseer of a WWII concentration camp. The boy wanders over to the camp, not understanding what it is, and befriends a Jewish boy behind the barbed wires. The film highlights the boy's ability to see beyond the politics and hatred taught by his society and family, to the humanity of his new friend.

Days later, we spoke to a representative of the U.S. State Department about the consequences of Turkish and Iranian bombing for the people in the border village areas, encouraging him to see past political jargon to the humanity of the people living in these regions.  We explained that these attacks mainly target villages further inland from the border and have little strategic effect on PKK military camps in the higher mountains.  We told him about a twenty year-old shepherd who sustained multiple injuries from Iranian shelling and of school children terrorized by Turkish planes frequently circling over their village school for up to an hour at a time.  We mentioned our concern about the U.S. giving Turkey military intelligence to assist it in it’s bombing.

He listened respectfully and then explained the importance of the United States’ collaboration with Turkey, our ally, and the need to help Turkey fight the PKK, a U.S.-labeled “terrorist” organization.  He believed this effort would make those areas safe for the displaced people to return.  “We cannot expect Turkey to negotiate with terrorists,” he told us.

We told him the Kurdish people believe the real purposes of the attacks are to destabilize and weaken Kurdistan’s limited autonomy and to clear permanently the village areas.  Villagers do not see the attacks as a something that will ensure their safety.

The constant bombardment of official justifications for military agreements and actions shapes our thinking, making it harder to keep in focus the humanity of people caught in the crossfire, their basic right to live peacefully in their homes and the futility of violence to solve conflicts or bring peace.  Refusing to “negotiate with terrorists” locks governments into military solutions.  This rhetoric excuses them from addressing the long-time injustices against the Kurdish people in Turkey, which are at the root of the conflict.  Diplomatic negotiations and addressing these root causes are the only ways to resolve this conflict and many others.

Matthew’s gospel cites Isaiah 42: 1-6 to describe the one whom God is sending into our midst to bring a new way of life. He is filled with God's Spirit. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice in the earth.”  Here in Iraq, we continue to look beyond our governments’ political positions to focus on God's healing care for those bruised by violence and for those who are wicks burning for justice.