Dialogue, Volume 25, Number 2 - Dialogue – A Journal of Mormon ...

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10 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT gress, after unlimited debate with full access to the facts and options, make the terrible decision to go to war. In August and September 1990, without Congressional approval, President Bush committed hundreds of thousands of troops to Desert Shield, claiming the force was only for the purpose of defending Saudi Arabia. About 15 October 1990, as Bush talked of going on the offensive and public demand for Congressional debate was growing, Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state under Nixon, claimed that now that President Bush had deployed over 200,000 American troops in the Gulf, there should be no public or Congressional debate. That huge presence was a concrete reality, he argued, and it must be used to forcibly extract Hussein if he would not back down —or else our credibility with Middle Eastern nations and our allies world-wide will be irreparably damaged. Bill Orton, new Congressman from Utah, spoke for the first time on the House floor during the debate about whether to support Bush's ultimatum of 30 November. "In the final analysis," he said, "the success of the President's diplomatic strategy requires the credible threat of force. I will give President Bush my trust and my vote and my prayers" {Deseret News, 12 Jan. 1991, A-l). I respect Orton's decision, which clearly was made after deep soul-searching, to support the best chance he could see for peace. But he never should have been put in that position, one which amounted to Presidential blackmail: Bush, on his own, created the huge build-up in the Gulf and set the deadline and nonnegotiable ultimatum intended to force Hussein to back down. Congress was not asked to debate the advisability of declaring war, of sacrificing American lives, freedoms, and resources to achieve ends that were clearly understood and that were "just" because all other options had been exhausted. They were merely asked whether they would support decisions already made; not to do so, supporters claimed, would have undermined the last chance for peace — that is, a unified show of force. Even so, the vote was close; many said they supported Bush mainly to send such a "clear message to Hussein." Clearly he didn't get the message, because he didn't back down from our threats, and we fought a war, unconstitutionally begun by the president rather than Congress, instead of seriously attempting available nonviolent efforts. (2) On 12 August 1990, Saddam Hussein broadcast a speech, (published in the 13 August New York Times, p. A-8), in which he offered to withdraw from Kuwait. His conditions: Recognition of his need to resolve certain grievances with Kuwait and resolution of "all cases of occupation . . . simultaneously and on the same principles and basis that should be laid down by the Security Council" —in other words, that Syria, Israel, and Iran meet Security Council resolutions for withdrawal from lands they had occupied by force. Though this proposal certainly has flaws and may even have been cynically made, it is rationally and morally defensible as a beginning point for negotiation. However, our government made absolutely no response and, as Tolk shows, refused ever to even consider such "linkage" (what others might call moral consistency) between the various evils of the Middle East. There was never any negotiation (which implies recognition of others' grievances and creatively suggesting options). There were simply unconditional demands on our part, which even escalated so that when Saddam finally, after the air assault, offered to withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait, even that was not enough. As Tolk shows, by then Bush had become intent on destroying Hussein's army and government. (3) Webster characterizes my position as "passivity" and warns that "to have ignored the invasion would have been perilous" (p. 8). "Ignoring" is not what I would want, and it is not the only alternative to war. Christ did not say, "Ignore your enemies," but rather, "Love your
LETTERS 11 enemies" —a very active process that includes "doing good," "showing mercy," and many other positive, nonviolent actions included in what President Kimball called "taking the gospel to our enemies that they may no longer be our enemies" (Ensign, June 1976, p. 6, my emphasis). Christ did not say, "Ignore evil," but rather, "Resist not evil" (Matt. 5:29), or as Paul amplified this idea, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21). Our policies in the Middle East have long been based on evil means —on pitting people against each other, on power and force rather than good. We have acted without justice, shifting support to and away from Iraq, the Kurds, Saddam himself, continually tilting toward Israel, allowing it to commit raids and invasions we have condemned — and violently punishing similar acts by Arabs. Why can't we use our enormous resources to support nonviolent efforts to resolve boundary disputes, to establish a Palestinian homeland, and to achieve equitable use of oil resources — the "doing good" that Christ has said would bring peace? We do not partly because we persist in believing that certain people are too evil to respond to good, but Christ has never given us that excuse. He did not say love and negotiate with your good, reasonable enemies or use Christian ideals only on those who "respect" (Webster, p. 8) such ideals. Christ's commands are absolute, and he has promised us that he would provide a way for us to obey his commands —if we were willing. But first we must stop demonizing others. I believe that the greatest delusion the devil creates is not in convincing people he doesn't exist, but in convincing some that he exists in the tangible form of a certain person or group — which we then can declare war on and destroy without any restraint of Christian teachings. The gospel constantly reminds us that evil and good are in all of us and that the same principles apply to all — including the command to do good to all and to never use evil means to try to combat evil. Whenever we think we must "fight to resist evil" or engage in "war for peace on earth," as the Vandagriffs put it, we have disobeyed Christ and have already begun to do evil to destroy peace. It is true that evil triumphs when "good men do nothing" (Vandagriff, p. 140), but evil simply triumphs immediately when good men do evil to fight evil. Eugene England Provo, Utah CALL FOR PAPERS The 1992 Northwest Sunstone Symposium will be held 23-24 October at the Mountaineers Building, 300 Third Avenue West, Seattle, Washington. Proposals for papers should be submitted by 1 August 1992 to Molly McLellan Bennion, 1150 22nd Avenue East, Seattle, WA 98112 or phone (206) 325-6868.
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Art and Half a Cake M. Shayne Bell
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Glimmers and Glitches in Zion Brian
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FICTION Ziontales: An Excerpt Kevin
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REVIEWS Reappraisal of a Classic Gr
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INDEX Index to Volume 24, 1991 Auth
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E "East Meets West," Wilma Odell, 1
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INDEX 181 "The Moral Failures of Op
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INDEX 183 Rosenbaum, Karen, "For Me
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ABOUT THE ARTIST Brian T. Kershisni
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