Gunpoint Solidarity in Iraq?

What does Christian teaching have to tell us about the rightness or wrongness of the ongoing war in Iraq?

"Jesus was not a pacifist in principle, he was a pacifist in practice," Albert Nolan writes in Jesus before Christianity (p. 152). This book is an eloquent argument that Jesus preached, above all, compassion for all humans and solidarity among all humans. His "kingdom" was one of "total liberation for all people."

The "kingdom of God" Jesus spoke of could be enabled by faith alone ... faith in the redemptive and restorative power of human compassion and solidarity:

The "kingdom" of total liberation for all people cannot be established by violence. Faith alone can enable the "kingdom" to come.

If the "kingdom of heaven" comes through faith alone — faith in universal brotherhood and sisterhood, faith in compassion and solidarity — then can there ever be a justification for using arms? Yes, answers Nolan:

... we can surmise that if there had been no other way ot defending the poor and the oppressed and if there had been no danger of an escalation of violence, [Jesus'] unlimited compassion might have overflowed temporarily into violent indignation. He did tell his disciples to carry swords to defend themselves and he did clear the Temple courtyard with some measure of violence. However, even in such cases, violence would be a temporary measure with no other purpose than the prevention of some more serious violence.

How does this apply to Iraq?

Our armed forces are ostensibly in Iraq now — never mind the original rationales — to quell the post-invasion insurgency and foster national solidarity under a new, democratic constitution.

If this were indeed "a temporary measure with no other purpose than the prevention of some more serious violence," as we have been, in effect, told that it is, then Jesus might approve.

But we've been quelling and fostering and preventing for over two years now. Our leaders keep backing away from predictions that our troops will start coming home later this year or in 2006. The mounting body count shows no sign of abating. If anything, the pace of the killing is growing.

The main indigenous source of the ongoing Iraqi resistance, the Sunni Muslims, have distanced themselves from the draft constitution to be voted on soon. Even if the constitution happens to be ratified in that vote, the projected December elections look to be anything but an exercise in burgeoning national solidarity, because of ongoing Sunni suspicions of Kurdish and Shi'ite semi-autonomy.

The Iraq war has long since ceased to be anything like a "temporary" use of violent force.

And you can't forge solidarity at the point of a gun.

So you don't have to be an in-principle pacifist to believe the troops should come home. It's good non-pacifist Christian teaching that tells us to get out of Iraq now.