Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of god. Matthew 5:45
When I lived in New England, I never came to Washington without visiting the Vietnam Wall. Now I get to visit more often. I don’t always visit the names of all those I knew but I make a point of paying tribute to my father in-law Charles Butler and my Colby classmate and friend David Thomas Barnes. Both men died after the Tet Offensive and therefore after it had become apparent to the vast majority of Americans that Walter Cronkite was right when he reported, “It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”
It would be four years later that Cronkite’s prescription was followed by President Nixon as he faced a reelection campaign. It is hard turning from war to peace and the first step is the most precarious, for it is then that the leaders on both sides must risk the hope that our enemies are people we can deal with, argue with, make agreements with. To get to peace our leaders must risk their own reputations when it so much easier and politically safer to risk the lives of the people in uniform.
That is why this Thursday I will give thanks to President Obama and Hussan Rouhani for taking that first step toward defusing our most dangerous international confrontation. Of course this is only a first step, and of course there are forces on both sides who want this initiative to fail and in the end they might succeed. As Sam Rayburn often said, “Any jackass can knock a barn down, it takes a carpenter to build one up.” But the risks that remain should not lead us to devalue the import of what has already happened. The leaders of two centers of power have decided to risk their power and prestige and argue to their followers it is just possible we can deal with our former enemies.
These tentative steps are taken with a backdrop where the people on both sides feel that the other side is untrustworthy at best, and the devil at worst. We know our concerns but must acknowledge that our history with the Iran leaves reason for them to distrust us as we do them. We put the Shah on the Peacock Throne and propped him up as his people suffered. After 911, when the Iranians responded in helpful ways, our President Bush II slammed the door in their face with his Axis of Evil speech.
I am thankful for the courage and wisdom of today’s leaders because the truth is this was always a Hobson’s Choice: a choice between something and nothing. Careful steps toward understanding and cooperation on the one hand and a horrible war that had very little chance of accomplishing its goal on the other. Contrary to the simple bromides of the neocons who loved to characterize the military solution as few bombing raids, the people who have really fought wars know much better and generally agree with Meir Dagan former Chief of the Israeli Mossad Intelligence Agency.
“Attacking Iran is] the stupidest thing I have ever heard...It will be followed by a war with Iran. It is the kind of thing where we know how it starts, but not how it will end.”
If I have one note to add to my prayer of thanks, it is to pray that we can see beyond the the plots of the self serving and words of fools. Over the next six months the fools will be telling us that President Obama has much at stake. This is true for what it says and a horrible canard for what it does not say. It implies that Obama and his administration are the only Americans with much at stake, which couldn’t be further from the truth. If your life is impacted by the price of oil, you have a lot at stake. If you care about national expenditures, you have a lot at stake. And if you care at all about the young lives that will be lost and warped in a war with Iran, you have much at stake.
Every American has a lot at stake in the effort Obama has launched to tear down the wall between us and Iran and thereby forswear the need to construct a new wall on the Washington Mall. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall that chronicles the lives of our sons and daughters lost in wars that should have been and could have been avoided.
When I lived in New England, I never came to Washington without visiting the Vietnam Wall. Now I get to visit more often. I don’t always visit the names of all those I knew but I make a point of paying tribute to my father in-law Charles Butler and my Colby classmate and friend David Thomas Barnes. Both men died after the Tet Offensive and therefore after it had become apparent to the vast majority of Americans that Walter Cronkite was right when he reported, “It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”
It would be four years later that Cronkite’s prescription was followed by President Nixon as he faced a reelection campaign. It is hard turning from war to peace and the first step is the most precarious, for it is then that the leaders on both sides must risk the hope that our enemies are people we can deal with, argue with, make agreements with. To get to peace our leaders must risk their own reputations when it so much easier and politically safer to risk the lives of the people in uniform.
That is why this Thursday I will give thanks to President Obama and Hussan Rouhani for taking that first step toward defusing our most dangerous international confrontation. Of course this is only a first step, and of course there are forces on both sides who want this initiative to fail and in the end they might succeed. As Sam Rayburn often said, “Any jackass can knock a barn down, it takes a carpenter to build one up.” But the risks that remain should not lead us to devalue the import of what has already happened. The leaders of two centers of power have decided to risk their power and prestige and argue to their followers it is just possible we can deal with our former enemies.
These tentative steps are taken with a backdrop where the people on both sides feel that the other side is untrustworthy at best, and the devil at worst. We know our concerns but must acknowledge that our history with the Iran leaves reason for them to distrust us as we do them. We put the Shah on the Peacock Throne and propped him up as his people suffered. After 911, when the Iranians responded in helpful ways, our President Bush II slammed the door in their face with his Axis of Evil speech.
I am thankful for the courage and wisdom of today’s leaders because the truth is this was always a Hobson’s Choice: a choice between something and nothing. Careful steps toward understanding and cooperation on the one hand and a horrible war that had very little chance of accomplishing its goal on the other. Contrary to the simple bromides of the neocons who loved to characterize the military solution as few bombing raids, the people who have really fought wars know much better and generally agree with Meir Dagan former Chief of the Israeli Mossad Intelligence Agency.
“Attacking Iran is] the stupidest thing I have ever heard...It will be followed by a war with Iran. It is the kind of thing where we know how it starts, but not how it will end.”
If I have one note to add to my prayer of thanks, it is to pray that we can see beyond the the plots of the self serving and words of fools. Over the next six months the fools will be telling us that President Obama has much at stake. This is true for what it says and a horrible canard for what it does not say. It implies that Obama and his administration are the only Americans with much at stake, which couldn’t be further from the truth. If your life is impacted by the price of oil, you have a lot at stake. If you care about national expenditures, you have a lot at stake. And if you care at all about the young lives that will be lost and warped in a war with Iran, you have much at stake.
Every American has a lot at stake in the effort Obama has launched to tear down the wall between us and Iran and thereby forswear the need to construct a new wall on the Washington Mall. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall that chronicles the lives of our sons and daughters lost in wars that should have been and could have been avoided.