A presentation to Illinois Yearly Meeting -- 7th Month 30, 2003

See also: Sun Tzu: The Art of War for Peacemakers
               The Wheel of War
                The Wheel of Peace

Friends, it’s customary to open a presentation like this with a joke or two. That’s a good custom, but the truth is, I don’t feel there’s much to laugh about these days, especially considering the state and direction of our nation, and the world generally.

So instead, I want to start out by asking you to consider joining me in something that’s not funny at all, specifically: a Declaration of War.

Not a shooting war; we have plenty of those, and that’s part of the problem. Instead, I invite you to declare the Lamb’s War, the Hundred-Year Lamb’s War.

The Lamb’s War is an ancient Quaker term, referring to a struggle for peace and justice carried on both internally and out in the world. And why the Hundred-Year Lamb’s War?

Well, consider the direction of our country and its role in the world. Those in power in Washington have set the US on a course to run the world, not for a year or two, but for a very long time. Indeed, the "manifesto" for this grandiose project came from a group calling itself the Project for a New American Century. Century. Not decade.

That vision has now been codified by the White House in the National Security Strategy of the United States, an official document which makes it formal policy to maintain American world supremacy by force, eliminate all actual or potential rivals to US power, while remaking the world in our image, regardless of such niceties as the desires of the people, international law, or even the rules of war.

You probably know all this, but it bears repeating. Now, it’s not easy to figure what to call this drive. I think something like "messianic hegemonism" is the most precise; but that’s a mouthful, and I’ll just call it imperialism for short.

By whatever name, it’s a crackpot scheme, full of grave hazards for the world. It’s also increasingly clear that it’s not compatible with either genuine democracy or civil liberties. So we have seen in the past months the unabashed construction of a thick wall of secrecy around formerly open corridors of power, while at the same time huge holes have been driven through what used to be the Bill of Rights.

Further, the enormous financial costs of this plan cannot be borne without deep damage to both our economy and our already inadequate social safety nets. That much is already obvious. And it’s not all: I predict that if this plan goes forward for many more years, the military draft will be back too. Right now, the top Pentagon and White House officials, most of them draft dodgers themselves, don’t want this, and I believe they mean it.

But we’re already seeing that the far-flung frontiers of this new American empire can’t be policed for very long without many more troops under arms than we now have. It just can’t be done. A return to conscription would bring back a form of involuntary servitude which was once regarded, rightly, as one of the deepest government invasions of our personal liberties as free citizens.

Many of us hope that with the next election there could be a regime change in Washington, and a shift of direction. I share those hopes. But even in the best case, it seems clear to me that cleaning up the damage and rebuilding will be the work of many years. Besides, my own political hopes are tempered by bitter experience: in my lifetime more than one new presidency has begun with high hopes and ended in shattered dreams, done in by deception and betrayal. The Psalmist spoke wisely when he sang: "Put not your trust in princes." (Ps.146:3)

You know all this too. And I think you know something else: that as hazardous and misguided as our regime’s crusade is, there are other crusaders out there as well, people who think it would be a great stroke for the glory of God, to kill you, and me, and everyone in this room, including all our children, right now, right here, even if it meant killing themselves in the process.

For the glory of God. Not for oil; not for political power; not for money. The glory of God. Since that terrible Tuesday morning which none of us will ever forget, I’ve gotten to where I can more or less live with most of the memories; but this part of it, that all the mass killing was done for the glory of God, still leaves me shaken.

So let me be clear: just because people in the Pentagon and the White House are paranoid, doesn’t mean there aren’t people who are out to get us; because some of them are, and they’re armed and dangerous.