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Beyond September 11 - Articles
- Overview of the War on Iraq and Strategic
Alternatives:
This 4-page overview details:- Key concerns about Iraq
- Arguments for a war on Iraq
- Problems with using war to address Iraq
- Alternative strategies for addressing Iraq
By Lisa Schirch and William Goldberg — February 2003
- Them's Hornets, Fellers, Not Bears!:
Let's just get one thing straight. This ain't a bear hunt anymore, it's a
journey for survival. We've got hard work and lots of learning about our fellow
critters to do if we're gonna make it.
By Ron Kraybill — October 2002
- The Wall and "Supply Side Security":
Let's name what we're really after. Isn't it security, to know that when we
say good-bye to our families in the morning we'll live to say hello again
over the dinner table at night? To know that our kids get to have grandkids
someday?
By Ron Kraybill — September 2002
- Sparse words from the journey: No words
can capture the pain of these 12 months past or reveal the meaning of the
events still unfolding around us. But speak we must, each in our own voice,
for in speaking we re-draw the shattered threads of our communities and find
strength and healing for the work at hand.
By Ron Kraybill — September 2002
- Statement of 100 Nobel Laureates: To survive
in the world we have transformed, we must learn to think in a new way. As
never before, the future of each depends on the good of all.
100 Nobel laureates, during the Nobel Peace Prize Centennial Symposium held in Oslo, Norway -— December 7, 2001
- Revisiting the Original Blueprint of Terrorism:
"Terrorism will persist so long as oppression, poverty, and injustice
persists." This statement, spoken by my political science professor at
George Mason University, Joseph Conley, is quite reflective and profound because
it requires us to understand terrorism in a different perspective. It requires
the victim of terrorism to understand that the terrorist perceives the victim
as being responsible for the violence that was inflicted against him. The
victim is responsible because of his injustice, his oppressive behavior or
his insistence on keeping a society in poverty.
By Jennifer Kimble -— December 2001
- Reframing Terror from the Perspective of Conflict
Resolution: The events on September 11, 2001 that overtook our daily lives
and reoriented our national and global priorities pose significant challenges
for our newly emerging century. They leave us with the question -- Quo vadis
-- where are we headed? Where we are going and how we get there depends a
great deal on how we define the nature of our journey, its challenges, and
ultimately its proposed destination. We might best understand our destination
as a horizon, visible as a guidepost but never removing the need for continued
journey.
By John Paul Lederach -— November 16, 2001
- A Long-Term Strategy for American Security:
By Jayne Seminare Docherty and Lisa Schirch -— Posted November 16, 2001
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Is United States Policy Being Driven by the Pentagon's Hardware? If this really is a new kind of war against a new kind of enemy, shouldn't our leaders be taking the time to develop the necessary tools before "ramping up" a war effort to the point where the military hardware and tactical needs drive policy rather than the other way around?
By Jayne Seminare Docherty -— Posted November 9, 2001 - World Council of Churches/WCC Press
Statement: WCC urges USA & UK to bring prompt end to military action
against Afghanistan.
From World Council of Churches -— Posted November 5, 2001
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After military action, Pakistani Christians express concern: New Delhi, 8 October--Ecumenical News International (ENI)--With violent protests erupting in Pakistan against the military strikes by the United States and the United Kingdom in neighbouring Afghanistan, leading Pakistani Christians have expressed concern about the situation.
By Anto Akkara -— Posted November 5, 2001 -
A Visit at Camp Unity: First Person Reflections: The following article presents the author's personal reflections of her September 24th trip to Camp Unity, the area near the Pentagon where investigators and search and recovery workers eat and take breaks from their work.
By Hannah Lapp -— Posted November 4, 2001 -
Strategy in Afghanistan: Initial responses to September 11 focused on the question of how to eliminate Osama bin Laden and the threat of terrorism. In recent days a broader set of related questions are emerging. First, how do we relate to the people of Afghanistan? This is a key question. Second, how do we gain support of Afghanis to apprehend bin Laden and take him to trial? This is an immediate question. A longer-term question, but nearly as important to the success of efforts to address terrorism and support the emergence of stability in the region is, third, how do we assist the creation of a credible government in Kabul?
By Ali Gohar and Ron Kraybill -— Posted November 4, 2001 -
Moving On: Kenya's bomb blast survivors, three years on:
By Katy Salmon -— Posted November 2, 2001
- Suicide-Murder, Murder-Suicide, and Mass Terrorism:
After the initial shock (of the events of September 11) had passed, we were
left to ponder these questions, "Why do they hate us? What did America do
to the Islamic world?" While the focus was placed on historical and cultural
factors, little attention has been paid to the psychological mindset of the
individuals responsible for such horrendous acts, a mindset that leads recruits
down the path to certain death. In order to understand such actions, we need
to comprehend the nature of suicide itself.
By Katherine van Wormer -— Posted November 2, 2001
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"Human Life is Sacred" An Appeal to Restraint and a Call to Action in a Moment of Crisis: We (eight Nobel Peace Prize Laureates) are greatly saddened by the tragic events which took place on Tuesday, September 11th , in New York and Washington, D.C. We cannot yet fathom the magnitude of what has happened, and yet we feel impelled to speak in light of what we fear may be an escalation of violence in response.
By Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Betty Williams, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Desmond Mpilo Tutu, The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Joseph Rotblat, Jody Williams -— Posted October 26, 2001
- How Might Peacemakers Respond to Terrorism?
A Proposal to Start a Dialogue: The events of September 11 may leave
those of us committed to non-violent methods of conflict resolution puzzled
about how to respond. As military and intelligence forces mobilize around
the world, what is our responsibility?
By David Brubaker -— Posted October 26, 2001
- Win the Battle But Lose the War?:
Yes, we are at war. But it's a different kind than some think. This is a battle
for the heart and soul of humanity. If we lose, our grandchildren will inherit
a world more miserable than our own. How the United States responds to the
atrocities it has experienced will have a big impact on that future world.
By Ron Kraybill -— Posted October 20, 2001
- Creating a Big Circle for a Difficult Discussion: Keynote address for first teach-in at Eastern Mennonite University given by Jayne Docherty on October 15, 2001.
- At The Fork in the Road: Trauma Healing:
As peacebuilders, we must learn to recognize and examine the trauma that often
smolders beneath conflict. We might be able to provide a quick fix, but we
can't transform the presenting conflict without uncovering -- or somehow attending
to -- the underlying trauma. The conflict can actually worsen. Victims are
re-traumatized and, if the trauma goes unhealed, the victim may become the
aggressor; the abused may become the abuser.
By Nancy Good Sider -— Posted October 10, 2001
- Pacifist Response: To speak to this issue we
do not have to go back to an imagined debate between Napoleon Bonaparte and
the Duke of Wellington. It was our own revered general and former president,
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who observed that war never settles the problems of
the world; it only exacerbates them. This does not make Eisenhower a pacifist,
but it does lend considerable credibility to their contention that war is
not an effective solution!
By C. Norman Kraus -— October 1, 2001
- The Draft: What will it be like if it is reinstated?
The Selective Service System remains in a standby, caretaker status. On Wednesday,
Sept. 19, 2001, White House Spokesman Ari Fleisher stated that "There is no
consideration of...(reinstating the draft)...at this time, and from my conversations
with the Pentagon, it's not something they anticipate." It would take legislative
action by the congress and implementation by the President to reinstate a
draft in an emergency.
By Titus Peachey -— Posted October 2, 2001
- Difficulties of Confronting Unconventional
Warfare: Strategists of unconventional warfare have for decades sought
to turn the anger and might of a military giant against itself. Thus, the
September 11 attackers stand in a tradition of unconventional warfare with
a considerable track record of success.
By Ron Kraybill -— September 26, 2001
- Revisiting the War Metaphor: September 25,
2001: During times of uncertainty - when no easy policy answer or response
is apparent - we must resort to analogy to make sense of the new problem facing
us. These analogies are expressed through metaphors.
By Jayne Docherty -— Posted September 25, 2001
- Ground Rules: Surviving Terrorism - A Victim's
Journey to Healing and Justice: Anybody within 35 miles of downtown Oklahoma
City on the morning of April 19, 1995 will have a story of the sound they
heard and the jolt they felt. In those first few seconds after 9:02 on that
beautiful Wednesday morning, the question was, "What was THAT?"
By Susan Urbach -— Posted September 2001
- What Motivates the Terrorist or Potential Terrorist?:
Our instinct is to assume that anyone who would fly a passenger jet into a
building, killing himself, everyone on board, and thousands of other people
in the building must be deranged. This judgement often finds expression in
claims that such individuals are evil. If this is the case, then crafting
any kind of a preventive or cautionary message for individuals who might take
similar actions is futile.
By Jayne Docherty -— September 24, 2001
- Peace Activists or Concerned Citizens?:
It is gratifying to discover that someone in the media acknowledges that not
everyone is giving unequivocal support to President Bush's call for a war
against terrorism. It is also disconcerting to see how those urging caution
are being rhetorically marginalized even as their activities are being described.
By Jayne Docherty -— September 20, 2001
- Communicating with the Terrorists and Their
Supporters: To send a well-crafted message that can actually be heard
as it was intended, we need to pay attention to all three elements: message,
channel, and recipient.
By Jayne Docherty -— Setpember 19, 2001
- A
Cry for Love: “Every attack is a cry for love.” The refrain
runs through my mind over and over since Tuesday, September 11. It was a lesson
taught to me by a student in a peacemaking circle training. It reverberated
deep within me, the way a truth does, when I first heard it. The words came,
unexpectedly, back to me in this time of fear, pain and confusion and they
echo repeatedly in my search for a response, for understanding.
By Kaye Pranis -— Setpember 19, 2001, posted February 2002
- Keeping Our Options Open: Creating a Response
to September 11, 2001 - Waco or Apollo 13: Crises are marked by events
that do not easily fit into existing organizational and conceptual categories.
During a major crisis, we discover that: -We cannot easily understand the
meaning of the events. -We struggle to define the problems exposed by the
crisis. -Even when we think we have some idea of the nature of the problem,
we do not have the language for expressing our ideas. -We have difficulty
mobilizing resources to deal with the problems arising out of the crisis.
-We need to create new organizational structures and new organizational relationships
in order to address the crisis effectively.
By Jayne Docherty -—September 17, 2001
- The Challenge of Terror: A Traveling Essay:
Though natural, the cry for revenge and the call for the unleashing of the
first war of this century, prolonged or not, seems more connected to social
and psychological processes of finding a way to release deep emotional anguish,
a sense of powerlessness, and our collective loss than it does as a plan of
action seeking to redress the injustice, promote change and prevent it from
ever happening again.
By John Paul Lederach -—September 16, 2001
- Trauma Recovery and Justice: September 11 and
its Aftermath: What form of justice will continue and sustain a recovery
process for the families of those lost in this tragedy, and for all of us
as we seek security in our world? Is it only the punitive kind that uses the
rule of law and possibly violence to 'right the wrong' or is it justice that
leads to transformation of unjust circumstances through the development of
just relationships?
By Barry Hart -— September 16, 2001
- Four Reasons to Use the War Metaphor with Caution:
Given our reliance as a nation on a war metaphor for describing many difficult
situations (e.g., war on poverty, war on drugs, war on crime), it is natural
that we would talk of our current situation as a state of war, even if we
do not envision an immediate massive counter-attack. Nevertheless, this metaphor
should be used with great caution.
By Jayne Docherty -—Setpember 16, 2001
- Frameworks Other Than War: As we have listened
to the TV commentators following the plane crashes at the World Trade Towers
and the Pentagon, the metaphor of "war" has been used over and over again.
When thousands of people die in a planned disaster, few commentators seem
to have any other frame of reference. Metaphors are powerful because they
subtly define what we know, what we see, what we can't see, and what we can
imagine.
By Jayne Docherty and Frank Blechman -— Setpember 14, 2001
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A Call for Thoughtful Response: Center for Justice and Peacebuilding Staff Thoughts On Trauma and Healing: Finally, as the full magnitude of the horror of these events becomes apparent, the repercussions are going to be personal as well as political, social, and cultural. We will each experience this trauma in our own way and our responses will be shaped by our past experiences with war, violence, and terror. It is important that we each find places where we can process our personal horror. We also need to be particularly mindful of the impact of these events on our neighbors whose lives have already included violence and terror in the United States and around the world.
By Jayne Seminare Docherty, Ron Kraybill, and Howard Zehr -—Setpember 2001
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