Greater Atlanta Presbytery passes overture opposing
Afghanistan war
On Saturday, Feb. 20,
the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta passed on overture calling for
action to press for an end to the military action in
Afghanistan. It follows a similar
overture
submitted by Hudson River Presbytery, with a few minor
amendments by the presbytery's Peacemaking Committee.
Overture on Afghanistan War
[posted here 0n 2-22-10]
The Presbytery of Greater Atlanta overtures the 219th General
Assembly (2010) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to:
1) call upon the United States Government to
a) take non-combative actions, and only those,
in vigorous pursuit of stability, prosperity, and peace in
Afghanistan and in the region;
b) cooperate with the United Nations and
Afghanistan’s neighbors in the stabilization process;
c) cooperate with the United Nations in
providing and overseeing greatly expanded aid to Afghanistan for
the delivery of humanitarian services and economic development
assistance.
2) direct the Office of the PCUSA General
Assembly, in conjunction with ecumenical partners, to take the
following actions, where appropriate assigning responsibilities
to the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, the Presbyterian
Washington and UN Offices, or other entities of the General
Assembly Mission Council:
a) Communicate to the United States President
and Congress the position of this Assembly as set forth in
Paragraph 2 above.
b) Further urge the President and Congress to
commit the United States government to the use of peaceful means
for the making of peace and for the pursuit of national
interests, concentrating upon diplomacy, international
collaboration, and material aid for education, the reduction of
poverty, and the broadening of political enfranchisement in
Afghanistan and elsewhere.
c) Encourage congregations and individual
Presbyterians to pray for the people of Afghanistan and all
fighting forces there, particularly those who have been wounded
or who have lost loved ones and to engage in advocacy and
actions for peace.
d) Call upon the United States Government to
provide adequate healthcare and rehabilitation, including
psychiatric care, trauma therapy, and substance abuse programs
for members and veterans of its armed forces.
e) Ask the United States Government to tabulate
Afghanistan war casualties among all parties, civilian and
military, and make a general inventory of destruction so that
the human and material costs of the war may be assessed and the
moral obligations of reconstruction and restitution be kept
before the conscience of the nation.
f) Provide congregations and presbyteries with
materials appropriate for studying the effects of the present
war in Afghanistan and of non-combative actions the United
States might take in pursuit of the region's stability,
prosperity, and peace.
g) Direct the General Assembly Mission Council,
through its Peacemaking Program and the Advisory Committee on
Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), to convene a seminary- and
college-wide review of peace studies, including peacemaking
opportunities appropriate to the need to demilitarize U.S.
international relations, and to report the results of this study
to the 221st General Assembly (2014).
Rationale:
Afghanistan is frequently called “the
graveyard of empires.” Today it has become an illustration of
Jesus’ saying that “those who take the sword will perish by the
sword” (Matthew 26:52). There is widespread opinion, in military
as well as civilian circles, that the war cannot be won on the
battlefield.1
The war being conducted in Afghanistan as a
NATO operation with major participation by United States forces
does not have the support of most Afghans. Such support as there
has been is declining.2 This works to the long-range
advantage of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, whose defeat is the
apparent aim of the United States Government. This war is
counterproductive.
Although the war in Afghanistan is by no means
the largest in recent times, its human costs are immense. At
least 18,000 Afghans have been killed3 and tens of
thousands more have been injured – mostly non-combatants – since
the U.S.-led international intervention began in 2001. As of
late 2009, Operation Enduring Freedom, as it is called, had cost
the United States some 800 fatalities plus more than 2,500
seriously wounded.4 There is also a rising and
alarming rate of drug and alcohol usage by our fighting forces,
doubtless a reaction to stress.5
The war's financial costs are also huge: more
than $273 billion, according to the Center for Defense
Information.6 To bring about peace, stability, and
the reduction of terrorism, such a sum would produce far better
results if spent on goods and services of benefit to the people
of Afghanistan and its neighbors: education, health care,
economic development, food security, poverty reduction, and the
like. The Rand Corporation has determined that political work,
local law enforcement, and peacekeeping would be more effective
than increases in military force.7
The current situation in Afghanistan provides
an opportunity to shift American resources and strategy in a far
more productive direction than at present. It is too costly and
breeds too much resentment. The long-range interests of the
United States require less reliance on military strategies for
spreading democracy, reducing terrorism, and providing for our
own safety. The root of war, especially in our time, is
injustice, usually expressed as severe economic inequity. Hunger
and desperation do not nourish peace.
Jesus' warning that one cannot serve two
masters is highly relevant in international affairs. A nation
cannot pursue peace while waging war, nor justice through
militarism. Wars such as the one in Afghanistan increasingly
result in the rape and killing of civilians, the destruction of
their homes, and the devastation of lands, economies and social
structures.
The gospel of and about Jesus Christ is a
gospel of peace and peacemaking. There is no more appropriate
time for a church to proclaim the peace of Christ and to pursue
its mandates than when a country and its government are pursuing
the horrors and futility of a misbegotten war. It is not the
province of a church to devise a template of government
strategies; we are not a political party. But it is our
responsibility to call the nation and the world to the way of
peace and to resist the logic of war. That is at the heart of
the biblical vision and the gospel of Christ. “For God's
foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is
stronger than human strength.“ (1 Corinthians 1:25, NRSV)
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Endnotes:
1. Powerful armies that met defeat in
Afghanistan include those of Alexander the Great in the 4th
Century BCE, the British in the 19th Century CE, and the Soviet
Union in the 20th.
2. ABC News/BBC/ARD National Survey of
Afghanistan, ANALYSIS by GARY LANGER, Feb. 9, 2009. “In 2005 …
83 percent of Afghans expressed a favorable opinion of the
United States – unheard of in a Muslim nation. Today just 47
percent still hold that view, down 36 points, accelerating with
an 18-point drop in U.S. favorability this year alone.” – URL:
HYPERLINK "http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/story?id=6787686&page=1"
3. United for Peace and Justice, Fact Sheet
#1, online at HYPERLINK
http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=4019
219th
General
Assembly