the United States doesn't invade other countries

I was doing a workshop on conflict for 60 or so teachers at a Jr. College/trade school the other day. We were talking about how one can dispel fear in the other party that prevents them from being cooperative. After all, if I am afraid of you, it will be difficult for me to cooperate with you in any meaningful way. The example of North Korea and its quest for nuclear weapons came up. "So why do you suppose they want nukes?" I asked. The responses tended toward "they want to be big stuff in the world." "Has the United States ever invaded a country that had nuclear weapons?" I asked. Consternation blossomed in the room. Everyone knew the US has never invaded a country with nuclear weapons. "Do you think they might be afraid of us?" I asked. The general response was "No way, the United States never invades anyone. How can they not see that?"

These teachers haven't been paying much attention to all the little invasions that don't spend much time on the front page, not to mention the big ones that do. They seem to have missed Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention Panama, Grenada and a host of others. Those who haven't kept track might want to pick up the book The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot.

Yes, they might be afraid of us.

Peacemaking

It's our granddaughter's 7th birthday. That makes one think. How dare she be so old? The life of human beings goes in cycles. One of the problems we have had lately is in messing up those cycles. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the couple with a baby carriage. How often does that happen these days?

Not to be a curmudgeon, but people who get the sequence out of order are making a mess of American society. Children who don't know their father, or know their father and that he is not the fellow sleeping with mom, are confused. If we want successful children, we have to show them successful parents. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the couple with a baby carriage.

As I work with young offenders and their families, the overriding issue is that the family forgot the poem: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the couple with a baby carriage.

Valentine's Day bombings

One of the beauties of travel is becoming familiar with new places and people. This age of bombings changes how it feels to know so many places. First thing this morning was the news of a bombing that killed the former prime minister of Lebanon, and an email from our friends in Beirut whose doors were blown open by the blast saying they were ok. Then the news of the three explosions in the Philippines. The bombing site in Manila looked familiar, and so it was. I was there not long ago. Likewise the site in Davao. I have not been to the bombing site in General Santos City because the workshop I was to lead there moved to Davao after threats from Abu Sayyaf, the group claiming responsibility for these latest bombings. The world is a much smaller place than we sometimes realize. The danger of relationships around the world is that the world news suddenly becomes local. Yesterday we had email with pictures from Jeff, our former Indonesia colleague, letting us know how it is going in Banda Aceh recreating water systems and latrines after the tsunami. We are tied together by our relationships in ways that make complacency impossible, and which tug at our hearts in ways the world news didn't 30 years ago. After a day like this one, ignorance is tempting.

The latest in Iraq

When one invades a country, overthrows its rulers and then disbands its police force, obligations are created. As a pacifist I would like nothing better than to have the US immediately withdraw from Iraq, but to do so would be cowardly at best. What we destroyed must be replaced, and this specifically includes a police force. The elections are a step in the right direction, moving repsonsibility and authority to Iraq's citizens, but until a proper police force can be recruited and trained it would be irresponsible for the US to leave. Mennonites remember vividly what happened after the Russian revolution when bandit gangs controlled the country. For the US to visit that on Iraq would be terrible.