The widow's mite
All the remaining members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams held hostage in Iraq were rescued by multinational forces. In a statement describing their release the organization said:
Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been freed safely in Baghdad. ... They went, motivated by a passion for justice and peace to live out a nonviolent alternative in a nation wracked by armed conflict. They knew that their only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers. We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq. The occupation must end. [emphasis mine]
According to the BBC the three were rescued by
acting on information provided by a detainee, the US military says ... the crucial bit of intelligence that enabled the rescue came only after two men were captured by US forces on Wednesday night. One of the suspects had the information which led officials to the Baghdad house where the hostages were four months into their ordeal. ...
Hostage James Loney reportedly confirmed that one person had led the forces to where they were held. In a telephone conversation with a friend, Mr Loney is said to have described the kidnappers as a criminal gang. Gen Lynch described the men thought to be responsible as "a kidnapping cell that has been robust over the last several months in conducting these kind of kidnappings." [emphasis mine]
Comments
We judge figures by their actions under stress; note their choices; form some estimate of their capacity for truth; their ability to recognize quality even in their enemies. In the statement following their release Christian Peacemaker Teams have shown their quality by completely airbrushing out of the account of their rescue the fact it was performed by multinational forces. In terms of truthfulness, the statement of the CPT is in a class with that of Maurice Thorez, head of the French Communist Party, who described the Liberation of Paris without once naming LeClerc, Patton, Eisenhower or even de Gaulle.
Paris is free. The people of Paris have chased out the Germans. The people of Paris have put a term to the activities of the traitors. Paris, ardent and tremulous rose up against the occupiers at the call of the Conseil National de la Résistance and the Comité Parisien de la Libération. Paris has liberated Paris. ...
The Allied armies are striking redoubled blows against the enemy. While the battle of France is unfurling with growing success, the Red Army, joined in battle with the main forces of the German army, pursues its victorious offensive. It is smashing the furious and desperate counter-attacks of the Germans. It is destroying as many as 300 tanks in one day. And it irresistibly advances. Twice the day before yesterday, and three times yesterday, the cannons rang out in Moscow to salute the great victories carried off by the Red Army against the Germans and their Romanian satellites.
No mention of 2nd French Armored or the Third Army but the victories of the Red Army against Romania figure prominently. Yet Thorez was arguably more truthful an historian than the Christian Peacemaker Teams who do not mention their rescuers at all.
Now I can see that the Christian Peacemaker Teams were right to admire such as those who even one of their own described as criminal gangs. For I would much rather throw in with ruffians who still had a perverse sense of criminal honor and were willing to come to the aid of their fellows than entrust myself to people paralyzed with their own sense of sanctity, full of their own sense of righteousness. They have forbidden any attempts to visit retribution and justice upon their captors. And if they know anything more about this criminal gang they are unlikely to share it with the Coalition. The Washington Post reported shortly after CPT hostage Tom Fox was killed:
Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. "We reject violence to punish anyone who harms us," said Doug Smith, quoting Fox, in a statement read to reporters at the group's headquarters in McLean, Virginia.
If I have it aright, the CPT would not on principle -- if the word can be perverted thus -- have placed a call, if they could, to save Tom Fox as he was being tortured to death because it might bring Multinational Forces rushing to violent rescue, an act they would have no part of. Yet they saw no contradiction in precipitating this absurd situation by their intentional presence in Iraq and by trailing their coat in the most dangerous neighborhoods; nor did they think it ethically consistent to refrain from telling the Press of the kidnapping though they must have known efforts to rescue them would be made, despite their well-publicized refusals. There is nothing more suspicious than false modesty performed conspicuously upon a stage.
As for myself, the Christian Peacemaker Teams remind me of nothing so much as Fred Phelps. I think that if ever there were an instance of latter-day blasphemy it must be in the CPT's hideous claim that their "only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers". Nothing seems further than the truth. They've endangered themselves, the lives of innocent Iraqis and those who hazarded themselves to find and rescue them for the sake of their own self-righteous theater. Vanity, not love is their watchword. Fortune and men's eyes and not God is who they worship.
posted by wretchardthecat at 3/23/2006 03:04:00 PM
46 Comments:
Oh, it's worse. Body and Soul is asserting that they weren't rescued, but that it was a "negotiated release" - this based on this:
"The British embassy clearly wished to make this appear as a military operation, emphasizing that U.S. and British forces took part. Foreign Minister Jack Straw said, "It followed weeks and weeks of very careful work by our military and coalition personnel in Iraq, and many civilians as well." Mmm-hm. No shots were fired, the captors were not around. This was a negotiated release. For which I am deeply thankful."
Good grief.
Will the ironies never cease? They are relieved that the bad man with guns came to free them so that they would have the chance to live again to denounce the bad men who released them? Ouch, I cannot wrap my head around that one.
We can only hope that their next rescue finds them under the tracks of a D9.
The Christian Peacemaker Teams also stipulated that no ransom be paid for their release. Ransom, like violence, was ruled out in advance by the victims while they were fixing to become victims.
The reason that CP teams are "international" rather than composed of indigenous Iraqis is so that they will implicitly be accorded the press spotlight if something happens to them. Therefore the CP Teams themselves are explicitly designed for "witnessing", that is to say PR. If they really wanted no one to rescue or ransom them they could simply keep it a secret. Then the matter would be entirely a matter of private witnessing and their claim to trust only in God and the goodness of Iraqi insurgents would be entirely believable.
But since their actions seemed designed to attract the greatest possible attention; calling for help with their deeds while professing to refuse it with their lips, I have doubts about their sincerity. Personally I think the CPT is a shameful misrepresentation of Christianity.
How much government time, effort, and resources went to gain their release?
Charge them for it. Make them pay back every stinking penny that was expended on their behalf.
There is a due diligence clause that is used to recoup costs for human caused wildfires and for search and rescues. It would certainly seem to apply here.
Good Riddance to bad Rubbish for Mr Fox.
If folks will listen to the mp3's at Radioblogger, however, they will find that the despicable Aussie Michael Ware, big Cheese at Time Mag, differs only in degree:
His Position is the famous:
"The INSURGENTS need their story told, too!"
...followed by:
Everybody lies, our side, their side, SOMEBODY has to be there to divine the truth.
He was temporarily outdone by Anderson Cooper though, who (citing ONE soldier) suggested that the brave reporters may well know more about the Iraqi Street than our troops!
Hewitt quickly got a call from an OIF Vet who straightened that one out, citing the incredible number of hours they spent on the street, more, in fact, than most Iraqis.
...
I used to like Aussie accents:
Between Arnett and Ware, I'm begining to hate them!
"The reason that CP teams are "international" rather than composed of indigenous Iraqis is so that they will implicitly be accorded the press spotlight if something happens to them."
---
But it is a Bogus Term:
They are NOT in the Sudan, but then that's because the evil USA is not there abusing everyone, and putting their lives at risk.
Fearless Folks, They.
One wonders if the CPT team members demonstrate the same lack of concern for self preservation when transiting certain areas near Washington D.C. - where their victimology will merely be noted briefly on the evening news as some dumb white folks adding to the local murder total.
And I would presume that they would refuse to call 911 - adhering to the same principles.
Precious post, W. Just for the French ref alone! Another combo of crisp historical references, spicy gumbo of comparisons, served in a reliable gravy of logic.
These self-tragic peacemakers remind me of ancient Hindus who valued all life so highly that they worried about breathing in tiny insects in the air lest they incur the karma, even accidental karma, of killing the invisible bugs by sucking them in their nose. So they wore scarfs over their faces.
These peacekeepers have likewise let their fundamentals run amuck and wear scarves over their common sense. A case of a little knowledge being dangerous.
Btw, thanks very much for the Belmont Club. I'm hoping you serve hot chili? Can I get a waitress?
Here's a French quote for you, Tony:
“The Americans constitute a real danger for France. If they cling to a veritable cult of the idea of liberty they don’t feel the need to liberate themselves from the servitude that their capitalism entails.”
Hubert Beuve-Mery, the future founder and editor of the newspaper, Le Monde wrote that.
He wrote in MAY 1944.
The month before the liberation of France was begun with the invasion of Normandy…
Who is Sa'ad Al-Fagih?:
Saudi Arabia is, by all accounts, one of the most repressive countries in the world. Muslim Sa'ad al-Fagih describes it as "a country that is run by absolute dictatorship."
Fagih is from a prominent Saudi family. He was arrested more than 10 years ago for his political activities and later forced to leave the country. He now lives in exile in London where he heads-up a Saudi opposition movement.
CBN NEWS: So why did the United Nations slap your organization...
FAGIH: Because they are in the hands of America.
CBN News: ...with terrorism charges?
FAGIH: Because they are in the hands of America, and America is conspiring with Al Saud. They really want a dictatorship that is secretive and corrupt, and it is the only government that gives them all fortunes of the country.
Sa'ad Al-Fagih
Doug,
I wouldn't worry too much about Australians in general. Last night Australian F-111s sank a confiscated North Korean freighter with two 2,000 lb LGBs -- after removing it of pollutants of course -- to let Kim Jong Il he could never have his drug ship back again. Ever. Burned good too.
MICKEY KAUS and Glenn Reynolds up next on Hewitt!
MICKEY KAUS has figured out that I'm not really a Pollyanna.
Plus, at Bloggingheads.tv, Kaus and Jim Pinkerton discuss space travel, nanotechnology, and human survival, with occasional references to An Army of Davids and Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near.
- Glenn Reynolds
No offense to the Stalwart Aussies!
...although they should disown Ware and Arnett!
Here's a link to the ship strike. Naturally the Greens are all hot and bothered about the possible stress the incident may have caused to marine life.
Oh goody! My F-111's are still in there kicking A!
I spent so much time working on those things that I am glad to hear they are still at it!
"Personally I think the CPT is a shameful misrepresentation of Christianity."
Presicely.
Their fifteen minutes of fame turned out to be too much for them to manage in so many respects.
I've often wondered what would have happened if the Good Samaritan had come a little earlier, when the robbers were still beating the traveler. Or if a pedophile had showed up when Christ was speaking to the little children. We know He drove the money changers out of the temple; would He not have shoved the pedophile back, verbally at first but physically if necessary?
Yet I get the impression that the CPT people would have done nothing. Christianity is not the process of transforming men back into rocks though somehow they seem to think it is.
OT x 2
Savage has a new book with 50 Cartoon Characters.
Chirac is portrayed as
"Frogus Europenis!"
---
Peter Bergin claims there's a Poll that shows that FIVE PERCENT of Saudis would choose to be governed by bin Laden!
wretchard:
Ther's nothing in the Bible that demands we tolerate evil.
Jesus told Peter to "Get behind me, Satan".
God sent the Israelites to kill pagans who were burning their own children.
As you said, these posers are a gross misrepresentation. They are not men.
More Attractive Practitioners in Prayer
Realist Romp/Bush Bash
RWE ... they don’t feel the need to liberate themselves from the servitude that their capitalism entails.
Ain't gonna work on Maggie's Farm no more. The French seem to think they can liberate themselves from the obligation of having a job, working for a living.
That's one thing the Scots-Irish don't have problem with, working. Their ancestors not only survived like cavemen on rocky soil, in a cold, wet, windy climate, but they also fought off all attempts at Civilization being imposed upon them, from the Romans to the British.
I guess they like being miserable, if that's what Freedom costs.
There is an interesting parallel in the history of Pennsylvania. The Quakers held an absolute monopoly of political power there until they stuck to their pacifist principles and refused to defend the Western part of the state from indian attacks. They even went so far as to denigrate the character and truthfulness of injured survivors streaming back into the city. There was a sharp revolt, the Quakers were utterly discredited and they never regained a fraction of their former influence.
Today's pacifists are pathetic by comparison. They are just small time losers.
On the other hand, "let him who is without vanity cast the first stone..."
RWE, I looked it up, in Oz the F-111 is not called the Aardvark (retired in US in 1996), it's called the Pig.
Aussies Love the Classic F-111
And it's little Navy moving-wing brother, the F-14 is retiring ahead of the F-111 in the US Navy.
Makes you love Air Forces, don't it?
Meme Chose
Tom Fox was a Quaker. Good point.
The basic problem of the nonresistant Christians was that they were mixed in community with those willing to take up arms. This caused political problems on the unsettled frontier. By coincidence this problem of a shared living space was addressed by Chief Justice Roberts in a case involving a warrantless search in which the wife, but not the husband, gave permission for the police to enter. He argued unsuccessfully that if you share your house or computer with someone else it is no longer entirely your own.
If the CPT involved no one else, they would be well within their rights to risk their lives in whatever manner they chose. However CPT members are also citizens of countries at war with those with whom they want to consort, and situations may arise where their unilateral pacifist actions may endanger the safety of the political majority. Then pacifists not only hazard their own lives, which they are entitled to do, but also the lives of others who do not subscribe to their beliefs.
This describes to a T the CPT situation in Iraq. They know full well that the law and public opinion will compel authorities to work for their release once they are captured. By engaging in behavior likely to result in their capture yet insisting on pacifism, pacifists are essentially compelling nonpacifists to play by their rules. They can only do this if they are in the democratic majority. But they cannot hijack public policy to suit their private purposes.
Roberts is never wrong.
I’m not embarrassed for them, they don’t represent my faith; these clowns are a bunch of proselytizing heretics, deeply afflicted with pride, and they need to remove Christian from their name.
Fail Safe
You are Isaiah?
The group seems utterly to be neglecting the wisdom tradition in scripture. The spiritualization of reality to the point of implicating God in saving them from their own nitwittery is an egregious gaffe for people of the book to make. Scripture speaks of those who neglect wisdom as fools -- and it does not honor God to reject wisdom. To the contrary, it gives the lie to any claim that God's glory is in any way on their short list.
The First Family of Jihad:
Huthaifa Azzam found the CD slipped under the front door of his Amman house a few weeks ago.
He thought it might have been left there by one of his brothers. But when he put it into his computer and heard the voice, Azzam realized it was a message from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who is leader of al Qaeda in neighboring Iraq.
If there can be said to be a first family of jihad, Azzam is its scion. His father, Abdullah Azzam, was a Palestinian professor who not only helped found Hamas, according to his son, but then went to Saudi Arabia to teach.
One morning in 1989, Abdullah and Huthaifa Azzam were headed to Friday prayers in Peshawar, Pakistan. They spotted Huthaifa's brother, Mohammad, who had just flown in the night before.
Abdullah Azzam sent Huthaifa back home to get other members of the family, while he and Mohammad got in the car.
Moments later, there was an explosion. Abdullah Azzam, his son Mohammad and another son were dead, assassinated in a car bombing.
But the jihad in Iraq hasn't gone according to the Azzam plan. Huthaifa points to his father's will and says that kidnapping journalists, beheading contractors and killing civilians is not what his father envisioned.
1st Family
Miḫa would know.
Mat knows where he is.
"Parasite" is a rough word, but does anyone believe that manifestations of CPT's attitude have ever survived without the protection of unenlightened--armed--peers?
I am outraged that coallition soldiers were put in harms way to rescue these creeps. Next time let them rot.
There is certainly an arrogance--an elevation of an idea of a self that is too "good" to make the sacrifice of defending one's own in the earthly realm.
Doug,
Colonel Klink, I know nothing, NOTHING!
To sum up:
Two Canadians and one Briton who didn't want 25 million Iraqis freed are freed.
Our brave liberators rescued three racists.
Tony: Actually the '111 was unique in that it never had an official name. The Arradvark name came because it has a long nose uses it to "sniff" the ground during terrain following.
The "pig" name comes from the fact that the Arradvark is known as the "earth pig."
The F-111 is an example of how a remarkable piece of equipment can come from a totally screwed up beginning - and then get badly screwed up for reasons that have nothing to do with its origins.
Was McNamera involved in every phase of screwing it up?
One of the things that irritated me the most about living in the UAE was the "Inshallah" attitude.
E.g. I will make this pass around this blind curve. Inshallah, no car is oncoming and I will live. To engage in dangeraous behavior and then blame God for its outcome is IMO reprehensible and buck passing.
God does to a certain extent operate via chance, but God also operates through people and so too does Satan. It was Satan operating through the Iraqi criminals that kidnapped, and then tortured and killed Mr. Fox. It was God operating through the soldiers that came to their aid.
Perhaps, their bet on God saving their wooly butts came up good for the three of them, but for one it came out terrible wrong. However, it being Lent most of us will surely soon hear the exhortation not to put God to the test. Them four put God to the test and they paid a terrible price.
I hope they were/are able to round up that gang and put them where they belong, six feet under.
Marcus,
Sounds like most of the Afghan militia I met... "insert 30 round magazine, point weapon toward enemy, hold trigger down, and in'shallah my enemy will be struck."
Major John,
Hehehe, not surprised.
The city I lived in had the UAE's Air Force academy. One story I heard (the truth of the story is undetermined but it is not an unreasonable story) was a student and an instructor were up getting some airtime. Something happened and the two were in trouble and the student basically threw his hands up and said Inshallah or something to that effect. The instructor being a Brit, or a Canuck, or an American or an Aussie did not agree and while it was a rough ride, they lived.
The hypocrisy of CPT knows no shame!
Great post and comments.
I think a relevant quotation is this one:
"Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
"But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you."
-Matthew 6:1-6, New American Standard version.
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