Brookings pastor Kline to Sen. Thune: Your words are commendable but your support for war doesn’t match them
Here we go again!
Three weeks into the war against Iran, we continue to get mixed messages. The president tells us the war is “very complete, pretty much,” as 2,500 Marines make their way to the Middle East. We’re told the war is “winding down,” as bombs and missiles strike Iranian targets unabated.
The official word is that the Iranian military is “gone,” but somehow U.S. bases and Israeli communities are being struck by Iranian drones and missiles, killing and injuring thousands. Opening the Strait of Hormuz is a “simple military maneuver,” but allies are reluctant to join the U.S. in clearing the waters of mines.
And for some reason, the Department of War wants another $200 billion from Congress, because “it takes money to kill bad guys” (so says Pete Hegseth of our Department of War). Perhaps he wants more money because one tomahawk missile costs from $1.4 million to $3.6 million, and more than 400 struck Iran by the first week of March, drawing down our inventory.
God only knows what it will cost to put those Marines on Iranian soil.
On March 20, the president warned Iran that if they didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, we would start bombing Iranian power plants. Perhaps he intends to play his Cuba card, putting the country in total darkness, without electricity for light or living.
In the meantime, he continues to assure us, “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great military efforts in the Middle East.” I guess the 50,000 troops we now have in the region give assurances any resistance to our military might will be silenced.
Unfortunately, I’ve lived through both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Afghanistan was the longest war in U.S. history, beginning with the post 9/11 invasion in 2001 and finally concluding with troop withdrawals in 2021. The cost of that war was $2 trillion. The war in Iraq began in March 2003 and lasted till December 2011. The total cost of that war was $3 trillion.
Not to mention the human toll! Some 4,400 U.S. military were casualties in the Iraq war and over 100,000 civilians lost their lives. Civilians are harder to calculate in the Afghanistan war but it was likely hundreds of thousands, including war-related deaths. Some 2,500 U.S. military lost their lives in that conflict with some 20,000 wounded.
But the primary reason for writing about the Iran War today is to send a challenge to our South Dakota senator who could make a difference. John Thune is fourth in line to assume the office of president. He has an honored and difficult position as leader of the Senate, where a modest majority can make passing important legislation difficult.
But more important given our present circumstances, Congress and especially the Senate majority leader, have a role to play with issues of war and peace.
So far he has refused any responsibility. He suggests that even under the War Powers Act the president has more than 60 days to do as he will. He approves of our military intervention, leaving decision-making to the president and military leadership. He will accept boots on the ground if military planners find it necessary.
For me, his reticence to address the issue doesn’t square with his professed faith. A favorite Thune Scripture passage is “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.”
How does that passage square with supporting the deaths and destruction in Iran? Isn’t war more like a noose around the neck? Where is the love and faithfulness? How do you win favor with God and man through warfare?
Thune says, “I want to stand up for the truth. I want to fight for the things I believe in. But I know you can do that in a spirit of kindness. You don’t have to be hostile to other people.”
This is a terrific attitude when addressing the responsibilities of Senate leadership, but why can’t it have implications for the larger human community, even Iranians?
Again, our senator is quoted as saying, “I want to move the arc of history in what I truly believe is the correct way for organizing societies and building a future for the next generation.”
Do you truly mean this, Sen. Thune? Does this mean you will do everything in your power to keep the next generation from dying in Iranian combat? Does it mean you will help restructure an economy from perpetual war-making to one of peace-making? Does this mean you will make sure our children have adequate access to health care and a sound education?
“Christian education gives you a worldview that is not necessarily tethered to time, but more to eternity,” he said. “Christian education raises your awareness that the things we do here are for a greater purpose, and hopefully, serve a higher cause.”
I absolutely agree with this Thune quotation. And I’m at a total loss as to how supporting war in Iran is a Christian “greater purpose” or “higher cause.”
Carl Kline of Brookings is a United Church of Christ clergyman and adjunct faculty member at the Mt. Marty College campus in Watertown. He is a founder and on the planning committee of the Brookings Interfaith Council, co-founder of Nonviolent Alternatives, a small not-for-profit that, for 15 years, provided intercultural experiences with Lakota/Dakota people in the Northern Plains and brought conflict resolution and peer mediation programs to schools around the region. He was one of the early participants in the development of Peace Brigades International. Kline can be reached at carl@satyagrahainstitute.org. This column originally appeared in the Brookings Register.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
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