Moral Case For War in Iraq: Preemptive Action Helped End a Great Horror
The recent Iraqi election and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz occurred within the same week, two events that exemplify the contrast between ignoring the plight of others and making the sacrifice of preemptive action. Hitler's systematic destruction of the Jews of Europe began as early as 1933 with the construction of Dachau, the first concentration camp. Originally intended for political opponents, its population quickly was expanded to include Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and gypsies. By 1942, additional concentration camps were in full operation in occupied Poland. Yet, when the camps were liberated at the end of World War II, many people were shocked not only by the carnage but by the fact that this genocide had apparently taken place in secret. The question must be asked: What did we know and when did we know it? Put aside the issue of classified government documents. I am talking about reports that were published before and during World War II that would have been read by average Americans. The late Dr. Robert Ross of the University of Minnesota spent many years documenting reports of Nazi atrocities as reported in American Protestant publications. Missionaries and others reported the plight of European Jews and pleaded for Christians to help. Publications such as the Sunday School Times and Moody's Bible Institute Monthly reported the following in 1935, 10 years before the camps were liberated: Driven like cattle though the fields and forests of Europe; tortured, harassed, brutally beaten, Jewish girls mutilated ... In the face of such a crisis, the Church of God is silent! What a reckoning will have to be given to Him in whose veins flowed the blood of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob! A Hitler in Germany, a Stalin in Russia, massacres of Jews in Poland, bloodshed in Roumania, a Nazi Jew hate in America -- surely the Child of God wants none of these things! ... Israel today is sending out a cry which must reach the very heart of God -- "Where shall we go?" So the Nazi atrocities against the Jews were not a well-kept secret after all. What did we know and when did we know it? And as a moral people, we must add: And what did we do? Fast-forward to Rwanda in April 1994. It was no secret to the world community that Hutus were slaying Tutsis by the thousands, yet the U.N. Security Council failed to act. Over a period of 100 days 800,000 Rwandans died. The movie "Hotel Rwanda" memorializes this human tragedy, and people who hear about it say, "Wow, that was terrible. I wish I had known." What did we know, when did we know it, and what did we do? This time the question has an answer: We knew about it as it occurred, but we failed to act. In March 1998, President Bill Clinton apologized to the victims: "We did not act quickly enough after the killings had begun. ... " Beginning in 2003 the government of the Sudan began its systematic killing of the black Sudanese of Darfur. So far, it is estimated that 300,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million displaced. For the first time ever, in July 2004, the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum declared a "genocide emergency" in Darfur. What did we know, when did we know it, and what did we do? The killings are taking place as you read these words, and we are "studying the issue." In Iraq, 270 mass graves have been found so far, containing the remains of an estimated 400,000 people -- all victims of Saddam Hussein's reign of terror. What did we know, when did we know it, and what did we do? Intelligence agencies across the globe reported on Saddam's atrocities as well as the possibility of weapons of mass destruction. Although weapons of mass destruction were not found, the reign of terror was stopped by U.S. actions. We knew evil acts were taking place in Hitler's Europe but we failed to act, and 6 million Jews, and millions of others, died as a result. Contrast this with our preemptive actions in Iraq and the result: the amazing sight of people risking their lives to vote. Knowing full well that they could have ended up as victims of terror buried in mass graves, Iraqi citizens saw instead the value of freedom and liberty, accentuated by the fact that American soldiers were willing to give their own lives for these ideals. Their ink-stained fingers, dyed to show that they had voted, were displayed with pride and became cherished symbols of the step they each took to embrace the gift of liberty. Here is the conundrum of leadership facing the Bush administration: If its preemptive policies and other actions in Iraq and elsewhere around the world prevent future tragedies and acts of evil, how will we ever know? How is success measured when -- in real and blessed ways -- nothing happens? When the enormity of Nazi horrors became known after World War II, the world cried: "Never again!" So what is our scorecard? We failed in Cambodia, we failed in Rwanda, we are failing in Darfur, but we succeeded in Iraq. -Cheri Pierson Yecke, Ph.D., is Distinguished Senior Fellow for Education and Social Policy at the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank in Minneapolis. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted. |
Cheri Pierson Yecke