[Baghdad Journal] Sitting in Limbo (March 9)

[Wade Hudson]

Sitting in Limbo (March 9)

by Wade Hudson

Sunday morning, I meet a recently arrived member of our delegation,
Jooneed Jeeroburkhan, a Montreal journalist, who was named in honor of an
esteemed Sufi mystic. After breakfast, he calls Kathy Kelly in Baghdad,
who tells him that an intermediary had delivered a letter from Kathy to
Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Azzizz, who responded to the letter by
saying, “It is done.” A call to an assistant later in the day, however,
determines that the order has not yet been processed.

Since previous delegations have had to deal with delays in obtaining their
visas, our roadblock is not surprising. So we cool our heels and use the
time to get better prepared.

I go to the nearest Internet Café, where I read a Post article that alters
my prediction about the likelihood of war. The article profile’s Bush’s
personality and his apparent calm confidence about the prospect of war.
Bush is well known for his religiosity. He apparently uses code language
to assure radical right-wing envangelicals that he shares their belief
system, including a yearning for Armageddon. But the exact nature of his
beliefs has not been confirmed. It does seem that his is confident that
history will carry him forward and that he will be hailed as a great
liberator who spreads democracy with forceful military action. These
beliefs, which I have known, have caused me great worry. He may actually
be living in the fundamentalist fantasy world, with which I am well
acquainted having grown up in Arkansas and Texas.

But the article reveals to me one fact that is new. Bush has said that his
favorite book is “The Raven,” a biography of Sam Houston, who like Bush
was a very heavy drinker for a substantial part of his life. The author
reports that after he sobered up, Houston found meaning in his life by
pursuing his dream of “empire.” The parallels are eerie and somehow prove
to be the catalyst to shift my sense of the future. I now believe that
Bush will invade Iraq, even without Great  Britain or a “coalition of the
willing.” This change does not consciously affect my emotional attitude
about going to Iraq. I have been well aware of the risk. But it does
change my intellectual analysis.

Another story I read on the Web is sobering. This article reports that the
U.S. military is building bridges on the Kuwait border that are large
enough to transport tanks. Another quote from Secretary of State Colin
Powell is ominous. He refers to the military action in Panama, in which he
played a role I believe, as a precedent that suggests an invasion of Iraq
will be equally successful.

So maybe George Bush will be leading the U.S. into another Holy Crusade
against the Moslem world. Bush is likely to be no more successful that was
the Catholic Church in their Crusades. But the Church did consolidate its
power in Europe as well, and people like Bush care more about their own
power than anything else. In no time at all, the United States could
resemble Israel, a garrison state trying to protect itself with
ever-greater reliance on military power against a never-ending onslaught
of terrorist attacks coming from every direction against forces spread
thin throughout the world. The only question is whether the American
people will accept this drive to be the world’s policeman.

A search of Google News offers a minuscule glimmer of optimism. A number
of recent articles report that Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic leader, has
finally begun to speak out more forcefully against war. But the actions of
the Democratic Party leadership are probably too little, and they are
definitely too late. Our most likely best hope now is that the invasion of
Iraq will catalyze massive global protests that will stop Bush in his 
tracks and lead to a fundamental transformation of American foreign
policy.

Following our late afternoon meeting, our last delegate, Mary Schoen,
arrives. Our ten-person delegation now includes:

Kathleen McGrath Christison, 61, a writer with two recent books on Palestine.

William Alan Christison, 74, married to Kathleen, Allan has also written
critically of US policies. Many of their articles have been published in
“Counterpunch.” Kathleen and Alan live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they
are active in the peace movement.

Shane Allen Claiborne, 27, serves on the Board of Directors of the
Christian Community Development Association, an organization of grassroots
activists committed to justice and reconciliation, in Philadelphia.

Martin Lee Edwards, 57, Vietnam veteran and retired air pilot, is a
practising Quaker and working to further the Global Non-violent Peace
Force initiative.

Zehira Houfani, 50, a writer and peace activist from Montreal, Canada,
recently published her fourth book, Letter from a Muslim Woman to the
Women of North America.

Wade Hudson, 58, comes with a long experience of working as a mental
health counsellor, community organizer, anti-poverty worker and peace
activist. He is currently writing a book, while working as a part-time cab
driver in San Francisco.

April Marie Hurley, 47, is a physician who runs her own home-visit
practice in Santa Rosa, California. She specializes in urgent care,
obstetrics and pediatrics. She has been involved in the nuclear freeze
movement.

Jooneed Jeeroburkhan, 58, is a foreign reporter and analyst with La
Presse, a French-language daily paper in Montreal, Canada. He has written
positively about the work of VitW and IPT in the course of his reporting
on Iraq, and believes the Voices network in Iraq offers the best view of
the human face both of the Iraqi people and of the American people in this
crisis. He travelled with the IPT from mid-January to mid-February, and
reported to his newspaper on a daily basis.

Mary Lynn Schoen, ?,  worked extensively during the 1980s at the
grassroots level in solidarity with Latin America. She lived in Guatemala,
Honduras and Nicaragua. In Nicaragua, she coordinated the delivery of
medical and school supplies during the US embargo. She has taught theology
in university and she now leads seminars and workshops on issues of
spirituality, healing and social justice. She was part of the IPT in
January and early February.

Robert Joseph Francois Turcotte, 53, trained in non-violence and
peacekeeping, comes with twenty-five years’ experience of peace activism,
including accompanying Guatemalan refugees upon their return in 1993. He
returned to Guatemala for the exhumation of mass graves and for two
separate war crimes trials.

The ten of us may have only one day left before entering the war zone.