c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) In explaining what it takes to be a disciple, Jesus talks of a king going to battle, asking: “(W)hat king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace.” (Luke 14:31-32)

Let’s be clear at the outset: With these words Jesus is not justifying war. Instead, he is saying that anyone who wishes to be one of his followers _ even a king who must think wisely especially before sending soldiers off to war _ must be willing to change one’s mind.

Certainly, it does not help to wonder what we might have gleaned from these words had we meditated upon them before the Iraq War. But aren’t there lessons in the passage we can still learn? That’s why I am deeply troubled by President Bush’s decision not to change course in Iraq, but to continue this war indefinitely.

In this war, there is not “another king” squaring off against us. If it is true that our primary objective was to bring the perpetrators of 9/11 to justice, then Osama bin Laden was _ and remains _ our primary adversary. But in order to sell the Iraq War to the American public, a deceptive connection was made between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. So why are our men and women dying in the Iraqi desert? To fight al-Qaida? Sunni insurgents? Shiite militias? Who’s next?

In the Gospel passage, the king assesses his prospects for victory against an adversary of known strength. In Iraq, the truth is that we are no longer fighting against a clearly defined enemy. Instead, we are fighting an ideology. Osama the man has become Osama the ideology. And this ideology, which glorifies death, has no borders. If we continue to fight in Iraq, we will be there a very long time _ not because we are fighting terrorists there, as Bush wants us to believe, but because the battle itself is misunderstood by the president.

In the biblical story, if the prospects for victory are dim, the king takes a different course of action, one that spares the lives of those on both sides and ensures peace. As a nation, we have come to realize that a military solution will not work in Iraq, and that a political solution is at best elusive. So what alternative do we have?

The Osama ideology took root not because of 9/11, which the entire world saw as evil, but because of how the U.S. is fighting the “war on terror,” which the entire world also sees as evil. The way to defeat the Osama ideology is to show it up for the lie it really is, and to demonstrate a genuine commitment to our own ideals.

But we can’t do that with troops still on the ground in Iraq. We can’t do it with prisoners still shackled at Guantanamo, detainees still tortured, and “enemy combatants” still denied due process. And we can’t do it with Palestinians still marginalized, Syrians still shunned, and Iranians still ostracized.

In other words, we can’t do it without changing our minds.

(Antonios Kireopoulos is the associate general secretary for international affairs and peace at the National Council of Churches.)

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