Reform Movement on 4,000
Mark J. Pelavin, Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism made the following statement:
Each American life lost over the last five years of our military involvement in Iraq has created a tragic and profound hole that will never be filled in the lives of family, friends and loved ones. The solemn milestone we have reached this week as we mourn the loss of the 4,000th U.S. soldier leads us to reflect that, while we may have begun this war with the justifiable goal of deposing a dictator and enhancing world safety, we continue fighting in Iraq without a clear vision for a sustainable peace, without a timetable for withdrawal, and without a metric for success.
Jewish values demand of us that we “seek peace and pursue it” (Psalms 34:15). Current U.S. policies in Iraq are not succeeding in creating peace. After five years of this war, the world is arguably less safe, hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed, and Iraq’s infrastructure remains unstable. And we are still not coming to grips with the economic costs of the war, which some now estimate to be more than $3 trillion, or $15 billion each month.
While we recognize that the surge has sharply reduced the number of fatalities in many areas of the country, we join with the broad array of political and military leaders who believe that military progress alone will not make the changes necessary for long term success in Iraq. We believe that a call for a phased withdrawal will help keep the kind of political pressure on Iraq’s leaders that can lead to these necessary changes.
On this grim occasion, we say again: It is time to pursue a new strategy which better protects the troops who remain in Iraq and also begins to withdraw them in the most expeditious way possible. Our men and women in uniform and their families deserve nothing less.
I don’t think Jews in Green should publish statements that are anti military such as the tone of the statement above. I think that anyone who claims that he supports the troops but disagrees with their mission is contradicting himself.
Chaplain Horovitz, I could not agree with you less.
In a democracy, the armed services go where the elected government sends them. I applaud the service, patriotism and sacrifice of our troops. But I would prefer they were fighting for a just cause … and one that is winable. The Russians, and the British before them, were unable to bring peace to either Iraq or Afghanistan … and nor will our brave men and women in uniform.
The Iraq governement turns a blind eye to corruption within its own ranks, and the Iraqui military has been less than willing to shoulder their full share of the burden; thousands have deserted.
I, too, respectfully disagree, though for apolitical reasons.
I didn’t find any anti-military message in this, even if it fits in the “we support the troops BUT” boilerplate. For myself and my friends, OIF-bound in the near-future, the kind of support we care about isn’t the political but the physical, in the form of care packages and letters from home. We get those, from people who support or don’t support or mission. It may be a banal sentiment, but if my Oreos have a hechsher, I don’t care who they come from!
We have many in our readership and in the services who affiliate with the Reform movement, and they have a right to know where their movement stands on their service in OIF/OEF. Jews in Green publishes items of Jewish military interest. The only form of censorship we should be embarking on is material that violates OPSEC.