Rejecting Obama Bush-era Policy

Amidst the Hope expressed in the impending closure of Guantanamo bay and the official rejection of torture as a legitimate interrogation technique, we cannot help but feel short-changed by the White House as our watchful eyes make us painfully aware of what these symbolic—nevertheless important—acts are intended to mask.

Beneath the façade of Change and progressive foreign policy, lies a disturbing cache of stockpiled Bush-era stratagem ranging from extraordinary rendition to preemptive war, combined with the same destructive ego/natio-centric worldview which takes great pains to justify every sort of evil by way of self-interest and self-preservation.

As civilian casualty rates in Afghanistan reach an all-time high and the documented number of such deaths in Iraq approaches the 100,000 mark, we are compelled to reflect on the high price paid for our national security. We are compelled to beg of President Obama an answer to the question first posed by Mahatma Gandhi, “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?”

We can no longer bask in our own privileged circumstance, averting our eyes from those unfortunate enough to live on the wrong side of the world; the side where a family is just as likely to be blown to pieces by a suicide bomber as they are to be incinerated inside their own home by a Coalition missile.

Despite the wave of popularity surrounding the new President, and the dizzying array of inane economic noise, we, the American public, refuse to be seduced or distracted. We challenge our new national leaders to publicly defend the policies they reject in their rhetoric, yet retain behind closed doors. We will not stand idly by, smiling to ourselves as 17,000 more U.S. armed forces are sent into Afghanistan to kill or be killed in service of the nation, its market, its consumerist ideals, and its political interests.

Let us remember that, “To fight violence with violence can only ever result in a victory for violence, not a victory over it,” as Bishop N.T. Wright warns.

It is high time the American people, particularly Christians, call into question the appropriateness of Obama’s decision to continue drone bombings in the sovereign nation of Pakistan, which invariably result in the murder of innocent families.

We, the Church, must openly reject the destroy-them-before-they-destroy-us mentality which President Obama has allowed to carry over into this new administration, as all resulting policy is in no way life-giving, redemptive, or reflective of faithful human be-ing. This mentality, being in every way inappropriate for any type of Christian or civil interaction, can no longer be seen as legitimate policy, blindly accepted, or passively coalesced.