With peaceful intent, but still in harm’s way
This newspaper will not allow its reporters to venture into Iraq. Not justifiable at this time, I’m told. Few do send reporters into the madness any more, save for a handful of news organizations that can afford elaborate security cocooning, some Arabic media agencies and risk- defying freelancers, who are extremely brave.
It’s a prudent position, I suppose, given the dangers in a country wracked by insurgency, more perilous now than it was at the time of the U. S.- led invasion, largely because those coalition forces were insufficient in number to seize the day and hold the ground. Nearly all the ruin that has befallen Iraq can be attributed to a lightning- speed military campaign of unprecedented success, followed by a muddled occupation and the inexplicable absence of a post- war strategy — a disengagement step- down plan with tangible goals that could be measured and assessed. Even against the background of elections and a recent signal that Sunnis are willing to participate in the political process, the quantifying details are all in the negative and drenched in blood: troop casualties, civilian deaths, political assassinations, suicide bombings, the dreadful theatre of hostage- parading.
I will accept, with some reservations, that the Star and other media are primarily concerned about the safety of their reporters. In my more cynical moments, I suspect the issue of insurance is also a determining factor — the astronomical cost of obtaining coverage for this particular war zone, without which nobody is going anywhere.
Yet there remain those, whether messianic or altruistic, courageous or foolhardy, who continue to stand with Iraqis or, more precisely, to stand against the United States, in opposition to a Washington- generated war of choice, even as the options dwindle down now to a precious few: Whether to stay, for as long as necessary, sacrificing the lifeblood of an American army inexpert at nation- building, or to bail and scuttle, abandoning Iraq — which the U.S. broke — to heal itself.
Iraqis continue to be killed every day — at least 36 wiped out yesterday when dual suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Baghdad police academy — and one dearly hopes they are dying for an attainable goal, patriots in the re- establishment of Iraq as a functioning state under the rule of law; millions of ordinary citizens planting the bulk of their numbers as an anvil against the relentless attacks from assailants internal and external, a smorgasbord of insurgent forces estimated at no more than 10,000. The lives of those police trainees who were shredded yesterday have no less value than the self- described peace activists — two of them from Canada — who were abducted a week ago, their captors vowing to murder them all if their demands, untenable demands, are not met by tomorrow’s deadline: The release of all Iraqi prisoners from American and Iraq jails. The kidnapped activists, all members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams — including 41- year- old James Loney of Toronto and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, formerly of Montreal — put themselves in harm’s way, knowing full well the risks of living and advocating in Iraq. Perhaps that makes them heroes, of a kind, their virtues emphasized by all those who have come forward to try to intervene on their behalf — Muslim scholars, diplomatic intermediaries, religious authorities of various denominations. Heart-wrenchingly, their families plead for mercy, stressing the kindness and goodwill toward Iraqis of the abductees, their profound opposition to war. The implication, if unintended, is that these four don’t deserve to die, or at least that they deserve less to die, as if any of those who came and went before them did. More than 200 “ foreigners’’ — including citizens of Arab nations, fellow Muslims — have been kidnapped since the American- led invasion in the spring of 2003, whether by radical elements trying to frighten away governments assisting Iraq’s reconstruction or criminal gangs seeking money- byransom. The New York Times reported yesterday that 50 have been confirmed killed and about 20 are still missing.
It speaks volumes that the best- case scenario would be for these peace activists to have been abducted by mercenary thugs, who are more amenable to negotiation. To them, a beheaded hostage would be a squandered commodity. To hardened insurgents, four more corpses would be just more blooding of a reviled enemy, even if these men are not enemies at all. So much for empathy with Iraq. Gene Stoltzfus, an American Mennonite who now lives near Fort Frances, Ont., was one of the founders of Christian Peacemakers Teams in 1988 and its first director. In an interview with the Star, the recently retired Stoltzfus said his organization has about 40 full- time workers and 160 “ reservists’’ from a number of countries. They receive no government funding. Nor, Stoltzfus insists, do they proselytize for Christianity. The group has been active in Hebron, defending the rights of Palestinians against Jewish settlers, for 10 years.
Seven members, including the four hostages, are in Iraq. The ecumenical group, which originally coalesced around victims of civil and guerrilla wars in Central America, was “ invited’’ into Iraq, said Stoltzfus, although he wouldn’t reveal by whom. Their objective is “more assertive peacemaking.’’
“ The mission is to get in the way of violence, to identify those elements that might be using violence, to push back the energy of violence,’’ Stoltzfus explained.
In Iraq, that has also meant investigating the treatment of detainees held by U. S. forces. Peacemakers released a report on detainees that the organization said were being mistreated or held without cause — four months before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke — and have successfully “ facilitated the release of some prisoners.”
Further: “ We have been critical of the wholesale use of lethal power by the U. S. military in Fallujah and of the daily house raids in Baghdad.’’ None of which prevented these four Peacemakers from being kidnapped by a heretofore- unknown cabal and threatened with assassination. But here’s something else that illuminates the position of Peacemakers: Stoltzfus refuses to rule out any group, or country, from the list of those potentially responsible for the predicament of the four activists.
“ It might be the resistance, it might be a gang of organized criminals. Or it might be someone under the sponsorship of a foreign power.’’ By foreign power, Stoltzfus implicitly includes the U. S.
“ I would delete nobody from that list.
“ There has been no demand for money. Maybe this points to the resistance. Or maybe it points to a concern about those who would draw attention to events that have unfolded in Iraq.’’
If it ends badly, if it ends in murder, Stoltzfus contends that faith in the purpose of their mission will give the abductees strength.
“ We believe that we should be prepared to take as many risks in the work of peacemaking as soldiers are asked to take in war- making.’’ Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.