Antiwar protests.

A Catholic news report on December 11 notes that the Vatican is reasserting its opposition to a war on Iraq:
www.cathnews.com/news/210/27.php

In an interview on 14 January, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad of the Russian Orthodox Church shared his conviction that "we can and should overcome the danger of the proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction only by peaceful diplomatic means in compliance with the international law and resolutions of the UN Security Council."
www.russian-orthodox-church.org.ru/ne301143.htm

Orthodox church leader Petros VII, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, wrote a letter to the President of the USA, George Bush on 2 January 2002, calling on him to find a peaceful solution rather than that of war:
www.orthodoxeurope.org/europaica/000006.php#4

The General Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches issued a plea to US churches during a meeting of the board of directors of Church World Service, on which he serves, asking them to press for a peaceful, diplomatic resolution to the Iraq crisis and to "speak to your government to stop any military offensive".
www.ncccusa.org/news/02news90.html

The Conference of International Catholic Organizations issued a press release on the Iraqi-American conflict on 19 January. www.oic-ico.org/eng/c3.htm
Pax Christi International sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council on January 27.
www.paxchristi.net/body_index.html

The Jesuit magazine, America, describes war against Iraq in an editorial (God or Country?) as "…arrogant, unnecessary and foolish…Opposing the war is choosing both God and country."
http://www.americamagazine.org/gettextED.cfm?textID=2889&articleTypeID=3#

In a statement against the "shameful, immoral and illegal act of war", the Executive Board of the Latin American Council of Churches criticizes "those who invoke in vain the name of God trying to legitimize at any price acts which because of its perversion are against the God's will", and call on Christians and people of goodwill not to give up in their prayers, denunciations and non-violents actions to resist for life".
http://www.clai.org.ec/Docs/VOZ_PUBLICA/CLAI-Dec.Irak.htm

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines writes that, "…this US-led war of aggression has no moral justification. It goes against the grain of the Christian tenet of justice and the right of sovereign nations to chart their future."
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/iraqstatements.nsf/86515f8cb8324c8cc1256ccc00376b59/9ace95da1ca31226c1256cf30054117b?OpenDocument

Pope John Paul II has urged respect for international humanitarian law: "It should be clear by now that war used as an instrument of resolution of conflicts between states was rejected, even before the Charter of the United Nations, by the conscience of the majority of humanity, except in the case of defense against an aggressor." http://www.zenit.org/

Rev. Dr Keith Clements, general secretary of the Conference of European Churches stated, "We cannot both believe in Christ who 'is our Peace' (Ephesians 2:14), and believe in war as an accepted instrument of international policy."
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/iraqstatements.nsf/86515f8cb8324c8cc1256ccc00376b59/cb7445ef6afc748cc1256cf30040f85f?OpenDocument

The Christian Council of Ghana lamented that "billions of dollars that are being channelled to destroy human lives and property in the war could have been used to help alleviate suffering" http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=34597

The Right Rev. Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem has said: "I continue to believe that whoever thinks that they can bring about a new world order with the power of the gun will be defeated."
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/iraqstatements.nsf/86515f8cb8324c8cc1256ccc00376b59/90e1f83062699e00c1256cf300449c55?OpenDocument

The Christian Conference of Asia, representing "more than 100 churches in Asia, consisting of more than 55 million individual Christians, join the world community in expressing disapproval and condemnation of the war against Iraq. We believe that war is a crime against humanity."
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/iraqstatements.nsf/86515f8cb8324c8cc1256ccc00376b59/78de04cba2c46f7cc1256cf3005445ff?OpenDocument

The Anglican Bishops of Aotearoa New Zealand, and Polynesia and the Roman Catholic Bishops of New Zealand expressed their "dismay at the outbreak of an unnecessary and unjust war."
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/iraqstatements.nsf/86515f8cb8324c8cc1256ccc00376b59/0f9073bfc7a137e2c1256cf30041ab5a?OpenDocument

Many church leaders in the US have taken courageous stands against the war, such as Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society who said: "Nothing I understand about Jesus Christ leads me to believe that support of war and violence are necessary or tolerable actions for Christian people. Someday, Christians will have to face up to the choice between their faith in God and the Prince of Peace, and their willingness to participate in war. Why not today?" http://www.umc-gbcs.org/news/index.php?newsId=209

Police Stop Collecting Data on Protesters' Politics
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM


hen a series of large antiwar protests began nearly eight weeks ago, the New York Police Department started questioning hundreds of people arrested at the demonstrations about their prior political activity and recording the information in a database.

But yesterday, after the practice came to light, the Police Department said it would destroy the database, created with a debriefing form, and largely abandon the initiative, which civil libertarians and constitutional law experts said was deeply troubling.

"After a review, the department has decided to eliminate the use of the Demonstration Debriefing Form," Michael O'Looney, the department's chief spokesman, said in a statement. "Arrestees will no longer be asked questions pertaining to prior demonstration history, or school name. All information gathered since the form's inception on Feb. 15 has been destroyed."

Several constitutional scholars and civil libertarians said that the practice raised grave questions about whether asking people about their political affiliations or activity would have a severe chilling effect on protest and speech that are protected by the First Amendment.

Central to the practice was the debriefing form, which detectives used to record where the arrested protesters went to school, their membership in any organizations and their involvement in past protests.

Mr. O'Looney said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and his deputy commissioner for intelligence, David Cohen, a former top Central Intelligence Agency official, did not know the debriefing form was in use. Mr. Cohen oversees the Intelligence Division detectives who conducted the questioning sessions at 1 Police Plaza as the protesters waited for their arrests to be processed.

"When it was brought to their attention," Mr. O'Looney said, "they took a look at it, decided some of those questions were not critical to our needs and decided to end its use."

He would not comment on the constitutional issues raised by the questions or say who had developed the form. Mr. O'Looney said that no disciplinary action was being contemplated against those responsible for developing the practice.

"After a review, the department has decided to eliminate the use of the Demonstration Debriefing Form," Michael O'Looney, the department's chief spokesman, said in a statement. "Arrestees will no longer be asked questions pertaining to prior demonstration history, or school name. All information gathered since the form's inception on Feb. 15 has been destroyed."

Several constitutional scholars and civil libertarians said that the practice raised grave questions about whether asking people about their political affiliations or activity would have a severe chilling effect on protest and speech that are protected by the First Amendment.

ANTIWAR: MOVEMENT, OR CULT?

By MARK GOLDBLATT

April 10, 2003 -- THREE weeks into the Iraqi War, the cancerous Ba'athist regime has been destroyed, and the hunt for Saddam has become a bunker-buster version of the carnival game in which the chipmunk's head pops up through a hole in the board, and you clobber him with a mallet.
So much for the "quagmire."

You'd think the fact that the liberation of 22 million oppressed people was accomplished with minimal civilian casualties (indeed, minimal military casualties) would give pause to those who've been marching against the war.

It won't, of course. For the antiwar movement consists not of thinkers but of true believers; indeed, it's more akin to a religious cult than a political cause, hoist on tenets of faith rather than points of evidence - and, thus, in the final analysis, no more responsive to counterarguments than guys who stand on street corners in sandwich boards forecasting the end of the world next weekend . . . no, next weekend . . . no, next weekend.

As the Iraqi people rise up to cheer the American troops, the true believers will claim the scenes are staged. As chemical and biological weapons are uncovered, the true believers will claim they were planted. As an interim government is established, the true believers will claim it's a puppet for American interests. As the oil wealth of Iraq is translated into prosperity for the people, the true believers will claim American companies are hogging profits.

To view this as mere idiocy would be wrong. People who believe such things are, in reality, clinging to their faith, clinging to a set of beliefs that infuses their lives with meaning, that connects them to a higher purpose, that makes them feel a part of something larger than themselves.

It's a constant, uphill struggle to maintain this particular faith in light of the manifest truth that America is the most benevolent world power in the history of the planet. The antiwar movement, thus, should be ignored, or pitied, or even ridiculed, but not condemned too harshly.

Like the rest of us, true believers are entitled to their pursuit of happiness.

Mark Goldblatt teaches at SUNY'S Fashion Institute of Technology.

E-mail: [email protected]