The Mormon Worker - Issue 6 - Mar 09

“I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves” – joseph smith
THE
Mormon Worker
Issue 6 March 2009
►Click on the name of an article to go there

■ Saints of the Fourth International: Saints of the Fourth International:
Remembering Joe and Reba Hansen by Gregory VanWagenen Remembering Joe and Reba Hansen
■ Foiling Another Palestinian “Peace Offensive”: by Gregory VanWagenen
Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza by Norman Finkelstein
■ The Gospel of Redistribution? by Matthew Wappett On the morning of 20 August 1940, Ramon Mercader made
his way from Mexico City to the small town of Coyoacan,
■ When is Violence Justified?
The Curious Case of Sgt. Hassan Akbar by Cliff Burton where he was ushered into the study of Leon Trotsky.
■ Abraham’s One Percent Doctrine and the He came ostensibly seeking advice from the architect of
Criminal U.S. Assault on Fallujah by Joshua Madson the Bolshevik Revolution, with an article he claimed to have
■ Between Christianity and the Libertarian Left: written for the Spanish underground press. History reveals
How Wide the Gap? Part II by Marc Young his true motive. Josef Stalin sent him as an assassin.
■ Impressions of a Young Arab Generation by Abdullah Mulhim As Trotsky sat down at his desk to peruse the work,
■ Killing for Ideology: A Brief History of US Efforts to he was attacked from behind. It was a glancing but deadly
Establish a Free-Market Capitalist Economy in Iraq
by William Van Wagenen blow from the pointed end of an ice-axe, the type of tool a
■ Obama’s Election: Genuine Revolution mountain climber would use to scale a peak. Mercader had
or Successful Branding Campaign? by Ashley Sanders hidden the instrument in his attache case. Later he would
■ The Other Cost Of The Holocaust by Tovah Ben David describe the scenario as “a wonderful opportunity which
■ We Believe In Saving Lives, Not Face by Cory Bushman I simply couldn’t let pass...”
■ Contributors ■ Navigation Despite the perforation of his skull, Trotsky leapt to
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Saints of the Fourth International: Remembering Joe and Reba Hansen 2
his feet, spat on Mercader, and knocked him to the floor

before falling to his knees.
A Note to Our Readers
The only other man present was Trotsky’s student and
The Mormon Worker is an independent newspaper/jour- personal secretary, Joe Hansen, Hansen tackled the assas-
nal devoted to Mormonism and radical politics. It is pub-
sin before the death-blow could be delivered, shouting for
lished by members of the LDS Church. The paper is mod-
eled after the legendary Catholic Worker which has been help. While Hansen didn’t manage to save his teacher’s
in publication for over seventy years. life, he certainly prolonged it. Trotsky would die the next
The primary objective of The Mormon Worker is to mean- evening.
ingfully connect core ideas of Mormon theology with a Joseph “Joe” Hansen was born at home in Salt Lake City
host of political, economic, ecological, philosophical, and on 16 June, 1910. Joe would be the eldest of fifteen children
social topics.
to be born to Conrad, a Norwegian immigrant, and his wife
Although most contributors of The Mormon Worker are Rose Hansen (née Christensen). Conrad and Rose were
members of the LDS church, some are not, and we accept
sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple in September of 1909,
submissions from people of varying secular and religious
backgrounds. and his father became a U.S. Citizen that same year.
The opinions in The Mormon Worker are not the official Conrad Hansen had been born to a fishing family in
view of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. the Norwegian polar region, and
had spent his childhood being
In solidarity, trained in the family business.
The Mormon Worker
While religion had prompted his
immigration, he found himself
unable to make a prosperous
THE MORMON WORKER living in Zion as a commercial
140 West Oak Circle fisherman.
Woodland Hills, UT 84653 After the birth of Joe’s
Subscribe to our print edition: younger sister, the Hansen fam-
www.themormonworker.org ily traveled to Richfield, Utah
themormonworker@gmail.com where Conrad worked as a tailor, Joe Hansen
http://themormonworker.wordpress.com and then to White Pine County,
Nevada, where the family (including young Joe) worked in
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a hard-rock mining camp. Eventually the Hansens returned here the Russian revolution was regarded favorably and
to settle in Central Utah. was much discussed...”
Having nothing but the tenacious desire to pursue an Joe would serve and study under Comrade Trotsky
education, Joseph Hansen left home at seventeen for Salt for over two years. His first published work, a current
Lake City. He began auditing classes at the University of events piece critical of the pro-fascist “radio priest” Charles
Utah in 1928, supporting himself with a series of odd jobs Coughlin, appeared in the Socialist Appeal on 12 July, 1939,
when he could find them. With the help of friends on cam- while in Trotsky’s employ.
pus he was able to matriculate the following year. While he While Mercader was successful, he was not the first
only attended part-time, he made a name for himself as an murderer sent by the Soviets to eliminate their theoretical
editor of The Pen (the campus literary magazine) and was rival. Only weeks before the fatal attack, Joe had witnessed
well regarded as a hard worker by his teachers and peers. an earlier attempt.
It was at school where he met and married his lifelong MEXICO – At approximately four o’clock in the morn-
companion, Reba (née Hooper). They were married in a ing of May 24, some twenty-five men under the direction
civil ceremony on 11 July 1931. Reba Hooper-Hansen was of Stalin’s GPU penetrated the high walls surrounding
the granddaughter of Heber C. Kimball. Leon Trotsky’s house in Coyoacan, and riddled with ma-
In 1934, Joe and Reba left Utah for San Francisco. Once chine gun slugs the bedroom where Trotsky and his wife,
on the coast, Joe signed on briefly to a merchant ship, while Natalia, slept. Robert Sheldon Harte, the secretary-guard
Reba took odd jobs. His time at port was spent working for on duty and member of the Socialist Workers Party, was
the Communist League of America. He served as a staff kidnapped and murdered, his body thrown into a shallow
writer for the Voice of the Federation (the newspaper for pit filled with lime. Leon and Natalia Trotsky owe their
the Mariners Unions of the Pacific). lives only to their own cool-headedness in a moment of
It was in 1937 that Joe left the United States to join the terrible danger and to a fortunate accident – the belief of
exiled Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico. the assassins that they had completed their assignment.
Reba remained behind, becoming ever more personally After the assassination of his friend and mentor, Joe
active in politics. rejoined his wife in San Francisco. There he enlisted as a
About his teacher, Joe would later write: merchant mariner, supporting the war against fascism. At
“Trotsky's name had come into my consciousness when the end of the conflict he resumed his work in politics.
I was nine years old. It was after World War I in a small In 1945, Joe and Reba moved to New York City, where
Utah town where my father was working as a tailor. Even both began working for The Militant, a socialist newspa-

per which, inspired by Trotsky, was critical of both the ens of books and articles. Joe regularly lectured in Paris
capitalist west and the institutionalized bureaucracy of the and New York City on the desperate need for workers
Soviet Union. That same year, Hansen declared himself and farmers to transcend the racial and ethnic divisions
a Socialist candidate for the New York delegation to the that were and are used by the ruling class to divide and
United States Senate. He ran again, for the same seat, in subjugate. The Hansens were unashamed critics of the
1950. From 1950 to 1959 he was editor of the International excesses of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of
Socialist Review, the theoretical magazine of the Socialist China, consistently offering a third position to struggling
Workers' Party. workers and farmers in the west, and hope for reform to
In 1960 Joe traveled to Havana with Farrell Dobbs, re- the dissidents within the sphere of the established Com-
turning to form the Fair Play For Cuba Committee. Among munist states of Eurasia.
Hansen's contacts during this time were Alan Ginsburg Joseph Hansen died in January 1979 in New York City's
and Norman Mailer. Mount Sinai Hospital. He was sixty-nine years old. George
The Communist League of America, which had by now Novack wrote his obituary, in which he described the life
changed its name to the Socialist Workers Party, became of this Mormon boy as “exemplary”. Mary-Alice Waters
increasingly popular with union members and student organized Hansen’s funeral in New York, which drew over
activists in the 1960’s. The party was one of the first to five hundred mourners. Simultaneous memorial services
publish speeches by Malcolm X, and the organ of the SWP were held in Toronto, San Francisco, Mexico City and Bom-
regularly took interviews from African-American political bay. James Cannon once described Joe as “a man of great
radicals. determination, who patterned his life and working habits
In 1963, Joe was in charge of the Socialist Workers upon the moral examples of his parents and teachers.”
Party delegation to the United Secretariat of the Fourth Reba Hooper-Hansen continued to tirelessly promote
International in Paris. That year he wrote: the cause of working people until her own death in 1990.
The healing of a ten-year-old division in the ranks She is best known for managing the Intercontinental Press
of the majority of the Fourth International—the World between 1969 and 1985, which published dozens of Leon
Party of the Socialist Revolution—which took place at a Trotsky’s essays and articles for a much wider audience
Reunification Congress held in Italy in June, marks a most than they were ever originally intended.
encouraging step forward for the movement founded by Joe and Reba’s papers are archived at the Hoover In-
Leon Trotsky in 1938. stitution of Stanford University.
Throughout their lives, the Hansens would author doz-

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Foiling Another Palestinian “Peace Offensive”: Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza 5
York Times Middle East correspondent Ethan Bronner re-

ported, quoting Israeli sources, was to “re-establish Israeli
deterrence,” because “its enemies are less afraid of it than
Foiling Another Palestinian “Peace they once were, or should be.” Preserving its deterrence ca-
Offensive”: Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza pacity has always loomed large in Israeli strategic doctrine.
by Norman Finkelstein Indeed, it was the main impetus behind Israel’s first-strike
Early speculation on the motive behind Israel’s slaugh- against Egypt in June 1967 that resulted in Israel’s occupa-
ter in Gaza that began on 27 December 2008 and continued tion of Gaza (and the West Bank). To justify the onslaught
till 18 January 2009 centered on the upcoming elections in on Gaza, Israeli historian Benny Morris wrote that “[m]
Israel. The jockeying for votes was no doubt a factor in this any Israelis feel that the walls...are closing in...much as
Sparta-like society consumed by “revenge and the thirst they felt in early June 1967.” Ordinary Israelis no doubt felt
for blood,” where killing Arabs is a sure crowd-pleaser. threatened in June 1967, but—as Morris surely knows—the
(Polls during the war showed that 80-90 percent of Israeli Israeli leadership experienced no such trepidation. After
Jews supported it.) But as Israeli journalist Gideon Levy Israel threatened and laid plans to attack Syria, Egyptian
pointed out on Democracy Now!, “Israel went through a President Gamal Abdel Nasser declared the Straits of Ti-
very similar war...two-and-a-half years ago [in Lebanon], ran closed to Israeli shipping, but Israel made almost no
when there were no elections.” When crucial state inter- use of the Straits (apart from the passage of oil, of which
ests are at stake, Israeli ruling elites seldom launch ma- Israel then had ample stocks) and, anyhow, Nasser did not
jor operations for narrowly electoral gains. It is true that in practice enforce the blockade, vessels passing freely
Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s decision to bomb the through the Straits within days of his announcement. In
Iraqi OSIRAK reactor in 1981 was an electoral ploy, but the addition, multiple U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded
strategic stakes in the strike on Iraq were puny; contrary that the Egyptians did not intend to attack Israel and that, in
to widespread belief, Saddam Hussein had not embarked the improbable case that they did, alone or in concert with
on a nuclear weapons program prior to the bombing. The other Arab countries, Israel would—in President Lyndon
fundamental motives behind the latest Israeli attack on Johnson’s words—“whip the hell out of them.” The head
Gaza lie elsewhere: (1) in the need to restore Israel’s “de- of the Mossad told senior American officials on 1 June 1967
terrence capacity,” and (2) in the threat posed by a new that “there were no differences between the U.S. and the
Palestinian “peace offensive.” Israelis on the military intelligence picture or its interpre-
Israel’s “larger concern” in the current offensive, New tation.” The predicament for Israel was rather the growing

perception in the Arab world, spurred by Nasser’s radical the kidnapped Israeli soldiers were neither rescued nor
nationalism and climaxing in his defiant gestures in May released; Hezbollah’s rocket fire was never suppressed,
1967, that it would no longer have to follow Israeli orders. not even its long-range fire...; and Israeli ground forces
Thus, Divisional Commander Ariel Sharon admonished were badly shaken and bogged down by a well-equipped
those in the Israeli cabinet hesitant to launch a first-strike and capable foe”; and that “more troops and a massive
that Israel was losing its “deterrence capability...our main ground invasion would indeed have produced a different
weapon—the fear of us.” Israel unleashed the June 1967 outcome, but the notion that somehow that effort would
war “to restore the credibility of Israeli deterrence” (Israeli have resulted in a more decisive victory over Hezbollah...
strategic analyst Zeev Maoz). has no basis in historical example or logic.” The juxtaposi-
The expulsion of the Israeli occupying army by Hezbol- tion of several figures further highlights the magnitude of
lah in May 2000 posed a major new challenge to Israel’s the setback: Israel deployed 30,000 troops as against 2,000
deterrence capacity. The fact that Israel suffered a humili- regular Hezbollah fighters and 4,000 irregular Hezbol-
ating defeat, one celebrated throughout the Arab world, lah and non-Hezbollah fighters; Israel delivered and fired
made another war well-nigh inevitable. Israel almost im- 162,000 weapons whereas Hezbollah fired 5,000 weapons
mediately began planning for the next round, and in sum- (4,000 rockets and projectiles at Israel and 1,000 antitank
mer 2006 found a pretext when Hezbollah captured two missiles inside Lebanon). Moreover, “the vast majority of
Israeli soldiers (several others were killed in the firefight) the fighters who defended villages such as Ayta ash Shab,
and demanded in exchange the release of Lebanese prison- Bint Jbeil, and Maroun al-Ras were not, in fact, regular
ers held by Israel. Although Israel unleashed the fury of its Hezbollah fighters and in some cases were not even mem-
air force and geared up for a ground invasion, it suffered bers of Hezbollah,” and “many of Hezbollah’s best and
yet another ignominious defeat. A respected American most skilled fighters never saw action, lying in wait along
military analyst despite being partial to Israel nonetheless the Litani River with the expectation that the IDF assault
concluded, “the IAF, the arm of the Israel military that had would be much deeper and arrive much faster than it did.”
once destroyed whole air forces in a few days, not only Yet another indication of Israel’s reversal of fortune was
proved unable to stop Hezbollah rocket strikes but even that, unlike any of its previous armed conflicts, in the final
to do enough damage to prevent Hezbollah’s rapid recov- stages of the 2006 war it fought not in defiance of a U.N.
ery”; that “once ground forces did cross into Lebanon..., ceasefire resolution but in the hope of a U.N. resolution
they failed to overtake Hezbollah strongholds, even those to rescue it.
close to the border”; that “in terms of Israel’s objectives, After the 2006 Lebanon war Israel was itching to take

on Hezbollah again, but did not yet have a military op- the feebly armed Islamic movement Hamas had defiantly
tion against it. In mid-2008 Israel desperately sought to resisted Israeli diktat, in June 2008 even compelling Israel
conscript the U.S. for an attack on Iran, which would also to agree to a ceasefire.
decapitate Hezbollah, and thereby humble the main chal- During the 2006 Lebanon war Israel flattened the south-
lengers to its regional hegemony. Israel and its quasi-official ern suburb of Beirut known as the Dahiya, where Hezbollah
emissaries such as Benny Morris threatened that if the U.S. commanded much popular support. In the war’s aftermath
did not go along “then non-conventional weaponry will Israeli military officers began referring to the “Dahiya
have to be used,” and “many innocent Iranians will die.” To strategy”: “We shall pulverize the 160 Shiite villages [in
Israel’s chagrin and humiliation, the attack never material- Lebanon] that have turned into Shiite army bases,” the
ized and Iran has gone its merry way, while the credibility IDF Northern Command Chief explained, “and we shall
of Israel’s capacity to terrorize slipped another notch. It not show mercy when it comes to hitting the national
was high time to find a defenseless target to annihilate. infrastructure of a state that, in practice, is controlled by
Enter Gaza, Israel’s favorite shooting gallery. Even there Hezbollah.” In the event of hostilities, a reserve Colonel at
the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies chimed in,
Israel needs “to act immediately, decisively, and with force
that is disproportionate....Such a response aims at inflicting
damage and meting out punishment to an extent that will
demand long and expensive reconstruction processes.” The
new strategy was to be used against all of Israel’s regional
adversaries who had waxed defiant—“the Palestinians in
Gaza are all Khaled Mashaal, the Lebanese are all Nasral-
lah, and the Iranians are all Ahmadinejad”—but Gaza was
the prime target for this blitzkrieg-cum-bloodbath strat-
egy. “Too bad it did not take hold immediately after the
‘disengagement’ from Gaza and the first rocket barrages,”
a respected Israeli columnist lamented. “Had we immedi-
ately adopted the Dahiya strategy, we would have likely
spared ourselves much trouble.” After a Palestinian rocket
38–50% of the Palestinian population is under the age of 14 attack, Israel’s Interior Minister urged in late September

2008, “the IDF should...decide on a neighborhood in Gaza death from the skies.”
and level it.” And, insofar as the Dahiya strategy could not As Israel targeted schools, mosques, hospitals, ambu-
be inflicted just yet on Lebanon and Iran, it was predictably lances, and U.N. sanctuaries, as it slaughtered and inciner-
pre-tested in Gaza. ated Gaza’s defenseless civilian population (one-third of the
The operative plan for the Gaza bloodbath can be 1,200 reported casualties were children), Israeli commenta-
gleaned from authoritative statements after the war got tors gloated that “Gaza is to Lebanon as the second sitting
underway: “What we have to do is act systematically with for an exam is to the first—a second chance to get it right,”
the aim of punishing all the organizations that are firing and that this time around Israel had “hurled [Gaza] back,”
the rockets and mortars, as well as the civilians who are not 20 years as it promised to do in Lebanon, but “into the
enabling them to fire and hide” (reserve Major-General); 1940s. Electricity is available only for a few hours a day”;
“After this operation there will not be one Hamas building that “Israel regained its deterrence capabilities” because
left standing in Gaza” (Deputy IDF Chief of Staff); “Any- “the war in Gaza has compensated for the shortcomings
thing affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target” (IDF of the [2006] Second Lebanon War”; and that “There is
Spokesperson’s Office). Whereas Israel killed a mere 55 no doubt that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is upset
Lebanese during the first two days of the 2006 war, the these days....There will no longer be anyone in the Arab
Israeli media exulted at Israel’s “shock and awe” (Maariv) world who can claim that Israel is weak.”
as it killed more than 300 Palestinians in the first two New York Times foreign affairs expert Thomas Fried-
days of the attack on Gaza. Several days into the slaughter man joined in the chorus of hallelujahs. Israel in fact won
an informed Israeli strategic analyst observed, “The IDF, the 2006 Lebanon war, according to Friedman, because it
which planned to attack buildings and sites populated by had inflicted “substantial property damage and collateral
hundreds of people, did not warn them in advance to leave, casualties on Lebanon at large,” thereby administering an
but intended to kill a great many of them, and succeeded.” “education” to Hezbollah: fearing the Lebanese people’s
Morris could barely contain his pride at “Israel’s highly wrath, Hezbollah would “think three times next time” be-
efficient air assault on Hamas.” The Israeli columnist B. fore defying Israel. He expressed hope that Israel was
Michael was less impressed by the dispatch of helicopter likewise “trying to ‘educate’ Hamas by inflicting a heavy
gunships and jet planes “over a giant prison and firing at its death toll on Hamas militants and heavy pain on the Gaza
people” —for example, “70...traffic cops at their graduation population.” To justify the targeting of Lebanese civilians
ceremony, young men in desperate search of a livelihood and civilian infrastructure Friedman asserted that Israel
who thought they’d found it in the police and instead found had no other option because “Hezbollah created a very

‘flat’ military network...deeply embedded in the local towns found that “the key battlefields in the land campaign south
and villages,” and that because “Hezbollah nested among of the Litani River were mostly devoid of civilians, and
civilians, the only long-term source of deterrence was to IDF participants consistently report little or no meaningful
exact enough pain on the civilians...to restrain Hezbollah intermingling of Hezbollah fighters and noncombatants.
in the future.” Nor is there any systematic reporting of Hezbollah using
Leaving aside Friedman’s hollow coinages—what does civilians in the combat zone as shields.” On a related note,
“flat” mean?—and leaving aside that he alleged that the the authors report that “the great majority of Hezbollah’s
killing of civilians was unavoidable but also recommends fighters wore uniforms. In fact, their equipment and cloth-
targeting civilians as a “deterrence” strategy: is it even ing were remarkably similar to many state militaries’—
true that Hezbollah was “embedded in,” “nested among,” desert or green fatigues, helmets, web vests, body armor,
and “intertwined” with the Lebanese civilian population? dog tags, and rank insignia.”
Here’s what Human Rights Watch concluded after an ex- Friedman further asserted that, “rather than confronting
haustive investigation: “we found strong evidence that Israel’s Army head-on,” Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel’s
Hezbollah stored most of its rockets in bunkers and weapon civilian population to provoke Israeli retaliatory strikes,
storage facilities located in uninhabited fields and valleys, inevitably killing Lebanese civilians and “inflaming the
that in the vast majority of cases Hezbollah fighters left Arab-Muslim street.” Yet, numerous studies have shown,
populated civilian areas as soon as the fighting started, and and Israeli officials themselves conceded that, during its
that Hezbollah fired the vast majority of its rockets from guerrilla war against the Israeli occupying army, Hezbollah
pre-prepared positions outside villages.” And again, “in all only targeted Israeli civilians after Israel targeted Leba-
but a few of the cases of civilian deaths we investigated, nese civilians. In conformity with past practice Hezbollah
Hezbollah fighters had not mixed with the civilian popula- started firing rockets toward Israeli civilian concentra-
tion or taken other actions to contribute to the targeting tions during the 2006 war only after Israel inflicted heavy
of a particular home or vehicle by Israeli forces.” Indeed, casualties on Lebanese civilians, while Hezbollah leader
“Israel’s own firing patterns in Lebanon support the con- Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah avowed that it would target Israeli
clusion that Hezbollah fired large numbers of its rockets civilians “as long as the enemy undertakes its aggression
from tobacco fields, banana, olive and citrus groves, and without limits or red lines.”
more remote, unpopulated valleys.” If Israel targeted the Lebanese civilian population and
A U.S. Army War College study based largely on inter- infrastructure during the 2006 war, it was not because it had
views with Israeli participants in the Lebanon war similarly no choice, and not because Hezbollah had provoked it, but

because terrorizing the civilian population was a relatively a settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict that calls for
cost-free method of “education,” much to be preferred over two states based on a full Israeli withdrawal to its June
fighting a real foe and suffering heavy casualties, although 1967 border, and a “just resolution” of the refugee question
Hezbollah’s unexpectedly fierce resistance prevented Is- based on the right of return and compensation. The vote
rael from achieving a victory on the battlefield. In the case on the annual U.N. General Assembly resolution, “Peace-
of Gaza it was able both to “educate” the population and ful Settlement of the Question of Palestine,” supporting
achieve a military victory because—in the words of Gideon these terms for resolving the conflict in 2008 was 164 in
Levy—the “fighting in Gaza” was “war deluxe.” Compared favor, 7 against (Israel, United States, Australia, Marshall
with previous wars, it is child’s play—pilots bombing un- Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau), and 3 abstentions. At
impeded as if on practice runs, tank and artillery soldiers the regional level the Arab League in March 2002 unani-
shelling houses and civilians from their armored vehicles, mously put forth a peace initiative on this basis, which it
combat engineering troops destroying entire streets in has subsequently reaffirmed. In recent times Hamas has
their ominous protected vehicles without facing serious repeatedly signaled its own acceptance of such a settle-
opposition. A large, broad army is fighting against a help- ment. For example, in March 2008 Khalid Mishal, head of
less population and a weak, ragged organization that has Hamas’s Political Bureau, stated in an interview:
fled the conflict zones and is barely putting up a fight. There is an opportunity to deal with this conflict in
The justification put forth by Friedman in the pages of a manner different than Israel and, behind it, the U.S. is
the Times for targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure dealing with it today. There is an opportunity to achieve a
amounted to apologetics for state terrorism. It might be Palestinian national consensus on a political program based
recalled that although Hitler had stripped Nazi propa- on the 1967 borders, and this is an exceptional circumstance,
gandist Julius Streicher of all his political power by 1940, in which most Palestinian forces, including Hamas, accept a
and his newspaper Der Stuermer had a circulation of only state on the 1967 borders....There is also an Arab consensus
some 15,000 during the war, the International Tribunal at on this demand, and this is a historic situation. But no one
Nuremberg nonetheless sentenced him to death for his is taking advantage of this opportunity. No one is moving
murderous incitement. to cooperate with this opportunity. Even this minimum
Beyond restoring its deterrence capacity, Israel’s main that has been accepted by the Palestinians and the Arabs
goal in the Gaza slaughter was to fend off the latest threat has been rejected by Israel and by the U.S.
posed by Palestinian moderation. For the past three decades Israel is fully cognizant that the Hamas Charter is not
the international community has consistently supported an insurmountable obstacle to a two-state settlement on

the June 1967 border. “[T]he Hamas leadership has rec- be only a matter of time before international pressure in
ognized that its ideological goal is not attainable and will particular from the Europeans would be exerted on it to
not be in the foreseeable future,” a former Mossad head negotiate. The prospect of an incoming U.S. administration
recently observed. “[T]hey are ready and willing to see negotiating with Iran and Hamas, and moving closer to the
the establishment of a Palestinian state in the temporary international consensus for settling the Israel-Palestine
borders of 1967....They know that the moment a Palestin- conflict, which some U.S. policymakers now advocate,
ian state is established with their cooperation, they will be would have further highlighted Israel’s intransigence. In
obligated to change the rules of the game: They will have an alternative scenario, speculated on by Nasrallah, the
to adopt a path that could lead them far from their original incoming American administration plans to convene an
ideological goals.” international peace conference of “Americans, Israelis,
In addition, Hamas was “careful to maintain the cease- Europeans and so-called Arab moderates” to impose a
fire” it entered into with Israel in June 2008, according to settlement. The one obstacle is “Palestinian resistance and
an official Israeli publication, despite Israel’s reneging on the Hamas government in Gaza,” and “getting rid of this
the crucial component of the truce that it ease the eco- stumbling block is...the true goal of the war.” In either case,
nomic siege of Gaza. “The lull was sporadically violated Israel needed to provoke Hamas into breaking the truce,
by rocket and mortar shell fire, carried out by rogue ter- and then radicalize or destroy it, thereby eliminating it as a
rorist organizations,” the source continues. “At the same legitimate negotiating partner. It is not the first time Israel
time, the [Hamas] movement tried to enforce the terms confronted such a diabolical threat—an Arab League peace
of the arrangement on the other terrorist organizations initiative, Palestinian support for a two-state settlement and
and to prevent them from violating it.” Moreover, Hamas a Palestinian ceasefire—and not the first time it embarked
was “interested in renewing the relative calm with Israel” on provocation and war to overcome it.
(Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin). The Islamic movement could In the mid-1970s the PLO mainstream began supporting
thus be trusted to stand by its word, making it a credible a two-state settlement on the June 1967 border. In addition,
negotiating partner, while its apparent ability to extract the PLO, headquartered in Lebanon, was strictly adher-
concessions from Israel, unlike the hapless Palestinian ing to a truce with Israel that had been negotiated in July
Authority doing Israel’s bidding but getting no returns, 1981. In August 1981 Saudi Arabia unveiled, and the Arab
enhanced Hamas’s stature among Palestinians. For Israel League subsequently approved, a peace plan based on the
these developments constituted a veritable disaster. It two-state settlement. Israel reacted in September 1981 by
could no longer justify shunning Hamas, and it would stepping up preparations to destroy the PLO. In his analysis

of the buildup to the 1982 Lebanon war, Israeli strategic terrorist activities eventually provoked the Israeli govern-
analyst Avner Yaniv reported that Yasser Arafat was con- ment of Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon into a full-scale
templating a historic compromise with the “Zionist state,” invasion of Lebanon.”
whereas “all Israeli cabinets since 1967” as well as “leading Fast forward to 2008. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi
mainstream doves” opposed a Palestinian state. Fearing Livni stated in early December 2008 that although Israel
diplomatic pressures, Israel maneuvered to sabotage the wanted to create a temporary period of calm with Hamas,
two-state settlement. It conducted punitive military raids an extended truce “harms the Israeli strategic goal, empow-
“deliberately out of proportion” against “Palestinian and ers Hamas, and gives the impression that Israel recognizes
Lebanese civilians” in order to weaken “PLO moderates,” the movement.” Translation: a protracted ceasefire that
strengthen the hand of Arafat’s “radical rivals,” and guar- enhanced Hamas’s credibility would have undermined
antee the PLO’s “inflexibility.” However, Israel eventually Israel’s strategic goal of retaining control of the West Bank.
had to choose between a pair of stark options: “a political As far back as March 2007 Israel had decided on attacking
move leading to a historic compromise with the PLO, or Hamas, and only negotiated the June truce because “the
preemptive military action against it.” To fend off Arafat’s Israeli army needed time to prepare.” Once all the pieces
“peace offensive”—Yaniv’s telling phrase—Israel embarked were in place, Israel only lacked a pretext. On 4 Novem-
on military action in June 1982. The Israeli invasion “had ber, while the American media were riveted on election
been preceded by more than a year of effective ceasefire day, Israel broke the ceasefire by killing seven Palestinian
with the PLO,” but after murderous Israeli provocations, militants, on the flimsy excuse that Hamas was digging
the last of which left as many as 200 civilians dead (in- a tunnel to abduct Israeli soldiers, and knowing full well
cluding 60 occupants of a Palestinian children’s hospital), that its operation would provoke Hamas into hitting back.
the PLO finally retaliated, causing a single Israeli casualty. “Last week’s ‘ticking tunnel,’ dug ostensibly to facilitate the
Although Israel used the PLO’s resumption of attacks as the abduction of Israeli soldiers,” Haaretz reported in mid-
pretext for its invasion, Yaniv concluded that the “raison November was not a clear and present danger: Its existence
d’être of the entire operation” was “destroying the PLO was always known and its use could have been prevented
as a political force capable of claiming a Palestinian state on the Israeli side, or at least the soldiers stationed beside
on the West Bank.” It deserves passing notice that in his it removed from harm’s way. It is impossible to claim that
new history of the “peace process,” Martin Indyk, former those who decided to blow up the tunnel were simply be-
U.S. ambassador to Israel, provides this capsule summary ing thoughtless. The military establishment was aware of
of the sequence of events just narrated: “In 1982, Arafat’s the immediate implications of the measure, as well as of

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 The Gospel of Redistribution? 13
the fact that the policy of “controlled entry” into a narrow became the envy of the New Deal. Roosevelt administration
area of the Strip leads to the same place: an end to the lull. people were sent out to Salt Lake City to study the Mormon
That is policy—not a tactical decision by a commander on Church's welfare system for caring for its own.” 1 Thus, the
the ground. welfare system we have in the U.S. today is partially mod-
After Hamas predictably resumed its rocket attacks “[i] eled on the visionary welfare work of the Church and it
n retaliation” (Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Informa- has served a worthwhile and important purpose as a safety
tion Center), Israel could embark on yet another murder- net for those in need during troubled economic times, and
ous invasion in order to foil yet another Palestinian peace for those unable to participate in the market economy as a
offensive. result of age, disability, or family circumstance.
Norman G. Finkelstein The recent election saw many react negatively to ideas
New York City about “redistribution” and “socialized” programs, and yet
19 January 2009 most charitable programs including Medicaid, Medicare,
For Full Article with Citations please download the full food stamps, and Social Security are meant to serve as
document in Microsoft Word Format: http://www.norman- agents of redistributing limited goods to those in need
finkelstein.com/docs/PalestinianPeaceOffensive.doc to equalize outcomes and opportunity. But unfortunately
Reprinted with permission from Norman Finkelstein. within recent years we have seen significant steps taken
at the state and national levels to dismantle these social
support programs. Indeed, some might say that the doc-
trine of “fiscal conservatism” has trumped the doctrine of
charity. Many Mormons within the conservative movement
The Gospel of Redistribution? are still spouting anachronistic, Cold War era warnings
by Matthew Wappett about “socialism” and “commies” running our country
The foundations of the U.S. welfare system were laid without truly examining our spiritual heritage which laid
by FDR during the waning years of the Great Depression. the foundation for some of the most socialized programs
But, what many don’t know is that this system of welfare to operate on U.S. soil.
was directly modeled upon the Mormon Church’s welfare The Church has a long history of progressive, socialized
work in the early 20th century. According to a 2008 radio welfare policies that go back well beyond the early 20th
piece on NPR by Ken Verdoia, the Church “developed a century, with intimations of such systems at the time of
very progressive social welfare system in the 1930s that Christ’s visit to the Nephite peoples in Mesoamerica some

2,000 years ago. We learn in several places in the Book of rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free,
Mormon that within Nephite society, when all things were and partakers of the heavenly gift” (4 Nephi 1:3). On the
held equal, the people were richly blessed and there was other side of the coin, we also learn from 3 Nephi that the
no contention among them. downfall of the Nephite civilization prior to Christ’s visit
For example in Alma 16:16 we read: “there was no in- was caused by the great inequality in the land:
equality among them; the Lord did pour out his Spirit on all And the people began to be distinguished by ranks,
the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of according to their riches and their chances for learning;
men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which yea, some were ignorant because of their poverty, and
should be taught among them at the time of his coming.” others did receive great learning because of their riches.
Later on following Christ’s visit we learn that the Nephites Some were lifted up in pride, and others were exceedingly
“had all things common among them, every man dealing humble; some did return railing for railing, while others
justly, one with another” (3 Nephi 26:19) and “they had would receive railing and persecution and all manner of
all things common among them; therefore there were not afflictions, and would not turn and revile again, but were
humble and penitent before God. And thus there became
a great inequality in all the land, insomuch that the church
began to be broken up; yea, insomuch that in the *thirtieth
year the church was broken up in all the land... (3 Nephi
6:12-14).
This particular scripture has, within recent years, struck
an eerily familiar chord with me as I have seen students
drop out of school because of their inability to pay, as I’ve
heard friends “rail” against the poor and oppressed of so-
ciety, as I’ve seen more and more class distinctions being
made within our country. Upon reading these scriptures
it seems to me that the Spirit of the Lord is more present
and the world is more harmonious when all things were
held in common, and that wickedness and dissension arose
when things were unequal.
These same issues of class, equality, and welfare are

also addressed and expanded upon in the revelations re- upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea,
ceived by Joseph Smith, and contained in the Doctrine and even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse,
Covenants (D&C). The first mention of equality in the D&C to become the common property of the whole church—
comes in Section 51, verse 3 where the Lord says: “Where- Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing
fore, let my servant Edward Partridge, and those whom he all things with an eye single to the glory of God. This or-
has chosen, in whom I am well pleased, appoint unto this der I have appointed to be an everlasting order unto you,
people their portions, every man equal according to his and unto your successors, inasmuch as you sin not. And
family, according to his circumstances and his wants and the soul that sins against this covenant, and hardeneth his
needs.” That sounds an awful lot like the “redistribution” heart against it, shall be dealt with according to the laws
of wealth doesn’t it? It sounds very similar to the equality of my church, and shall be delivered over to the buffetings
that we read about in the Book or Mormon. of Satan until the day of redemption (D&C 82:15-21).
Later in D&C Section 70, verse 14 the Lord says: “Nev- In this particular passage of scripture we learn that the
ertheless, in your temporal things you shall be equal, and Lord bound his people with a covenant that they were to
this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance of the mani- be equal, like in the Book of Mormon, and that this equal-
festations of the Spirit shall be withheld.” The Lord goes on ity was achieved by casting all properties and talents into
to say that, “if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot the Lord’s storehouse where they were to be used for the
be equal in obtaining heavenly things (D&C 78:6).” Then common good. There was also a tremendous promise that
later in Section 82 the Lord establishes the United Order as went along with this covenant and a price for those who
a covenant among the Saints in Kirtland and gives Joseph sinned against this covenant by “hardening” their hearts
Smith the following commandment: against it; but selfishness is a common human trait and we
Therefore, I give unto you this commandment, that ye have a tendency to covet what is ours whether it is money,
bind yourselves by this covenant, and it shall be done ac- land, or possessions. This selfishness eventually surfaces
cording to the laws of the Lord. Behold, here is wisdom also in Section 104 where we learn of the United Order be-
in me for your good. And you are to be equal, or in other ing reorganized because of the “covenants being broken
words, you are to have equal claims on the properties, for through transgression, by covetousness and feigned words”
the benefit of managing the concerns of your stewardships, (D&C 104:52).
every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch Because of our human tendency towards psychological
as his wants are just— And all this for the benefit of the egoism the United Order was eventually dissolved, but that
church of the living God, that every man may improve didn’t absolve the Saints of their responsibility for “seeking

the interest of his neighbor” (D&C 82:17), and as the Saints at the well about the “living water” of the gospel (John
prepared to cross the plains, the Lord revisits the notion 4:10-11), and raised the ire of the Pharisees when he “drew
of redistributing resources and responsibility as a means near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
of protecting and nurturing the weak and marginalized And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man
of society: “Let each company bear an equal proportion, receiveth sinners, and eateth with them” (Luke 15:1-2) an
according to the dividend of their property, in taking the action that was taboo among orthodox Jewish society of
poor, the widows, the fatherless, and the families of those the time. Christ welcomed all, nurtured all, and rejected
who have gone into the army, that the cries of the widow none...therefore I find it hard to believe that Christ would
and the fatherless come not up into the ears of the Lord only say that this responsibility for charity, or even the
against this people” (D&C 136:8). Thus the Lord seems to responsibility to give unto each (redistribute?) as his/her
understand that some level of redistribution is necessary to needs dictate is the sole privilege of Church members. In-
achieve equality of means and ends. The Lord also seems deed much of the welfare aid from the Church today goes
to indicate that redistribution doesn’t just mean material to individuals who are not members of the Church, but
things, but that every person has a responsibility to watch who are nevertheless in need.
and care for the weak and oppressed. Indeed we still live The fact that the Church engages in this interdenomi-
by this covenant when we promise to consecrate our time, national welfare does not relieve us of our responsibility to
talents, and everything we are blessed with to the building do the same within our neighborhoods, cities, counties, or
of the Kingdom of God. country. We should try to accomplish the same mission of
Now, I know that there will be those who feel that I am caring for the underprivileged through secular institutions,
interpreting these scriptures too broadly. They will likely including government, as well as through the institution of
argue that this structure of governance was intended for the Church. Many argue it is immoral for the government
within the Church and among those who had entered into to forcibly take from those who have wealth and give it to
the covenant only; that those outside of the covenant, in- those who don’t. Though I am certainly sympathetic to the
cluding government, can’t possibly be bound by the same fact that government robs us through taxation, caring for
spiritual laws, and yet I believe that we must have more the needy is the one use of our tax money I wouldn’t object
faith in our fellow man. Indeed when it comes to welfare to. Those who are opposed to the government taxing us to
and charity I believe that we need to once again look to the help the poor, never seem to complain when the govern-
example of Christ for the answer to this quandary. Christ ment does the same to build roads, or parks, or museums,
did not discriminate. Christ taught the Samaritan woman or what’s more, tanks, or bombers, or nuclear weapons, or

to fund going to war against nations who have never at- antithetical to
tacked us, such as Vietnam or Iraq. These undertakings are Christ’s teach-
not given priority in scripture, and in the case of offensive ing that if we
war, are even condemned. In contrast, helping the needy are to “be per-
is a clear commandment. fect, go and
From what I understand in the scriptures, there is no sell that thou
virtue that is of more everlasting value than the virtue of hast, and give
charity. In Colossians Paul gives us a laundry list of vir- to the poor,
tues and duties, but concludes by saying: “And above all and thou shalt
these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfect- have treasure
ness.” (Colossians 3:14). Moroni is a little more explicit in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matthew 19:21).
when discussing charity: “And except ye have charity ye In conclusion, I do not believe that democracy needs
can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God” (Moroni to be synonymous with a capitalist economic system. I
10:21). Thus charity, both the action and the attitude, are look to the many democratic socialist countries in Europe
pivotal to our overall salvation. Unfortunately many see and see great hope for the world there. I do not believe
charity, both the attitude and the action, as a burden and that the wisdom of the masses, democracy, can peacefully
promote policies and attitudes that are harmful to those coexist with an economic system that is based upon the
in need. We are living in a day when Solomon’s words in pursuit of profit and each individual’s self interest. We
Proverbs have indeed come true: “The poor is hated even cannot have a system of government that is meant to serve
of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends.” the common good while we have a personal, social, and
(Proverbs 14:20). economic ethic founded upon principles of psychological
We live in a society that praises and rewards selfishness. egoism. Similarly, we cannot believe in the divine origin
The foundations of the American system of free enterprise of man and the earth and then participate in a culture and
are based upon the notion that the pursuit of individual economy that views people and the earth as a means. Man
wealth and power works to the good of the whole of society; and the earth are of divine origin and thus are an end in,
a paradoxical notion at best, and an excuse for the most egre- and of, themselves...they should not, and cannot, be used
gious behavior at worst. We live in a country and culture as a medium for achieving profit, prestige, or privilege. I
that encourages egoism and accumulation. It is something believe that we cannot sit idly by and take the world as it
that many seem to aspire to. It is behavior that is entirely comes to us. I believe that we have a divine calling to take

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 When is Violence Justified? The Curious Case of Sgt. Hassan Akbar 18
love, charity, and hope into the world.

I believe that we should be “anxiously engaged” in mak-
ing the world a better place and ensuring that we leave it
When is Violence Justified?
better than we found it. This is a principle that I learned
from my father many years ago in the White Mountains
The Curious Case of Sgt. Hassan Akbar
by Cliff Burton
north of Fairbanks. When we would ski and snowmachine
into the BLM cabins in that priceless wilderness we would On April 28th 2005, a military judge sentenced US Army
frequently find the cabins bare of firewood. We would end Sgt. Hasan Akbar to death for the murder of two of his
up travelling down the trail, oftentimes several miles to fellow soldiers. Prosecutors allege that, while stationed in
gather wood to heat the cabins. At the end of our stay we Kuwait, during the first days of the US invasion of Iraq in
would do exactly the same thing; we would spend our last 2003, Akbar stole seven grenades from a Humvee, and threw
morning cutting firewood. We would haul the wood back them into the tent of Army Capt. Christopher Seifert and
to the cabin, chop kindling, stack kindling and wood inside Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, killing both and wounding
the cabin, and bank the fire in the wood stove to ensure several others.
the cabin was ready for the next visitors. My father would The Chief prosecutor in the case, Lt. Col. Michael Mul-
always reiterate that it was our responsibility to leave the ligan, contended that Akbar killed his two comrades be-
cabin “better than we found it”. I believe in this principle. cause “he is a hate-filled, ideologically driven murderer.”1
I thank my father for teaching it to me through example. I Apparently the judge agreed.
believe we must all make every effort to leave the world Mulligan’s characterization of Akbar fits well with the
better than we found it. I hope that my comments will general US government view of the so-called War on Ter-
serve as a reminder of the wider social role that the Gos- ror. They’re the bad guys, we’re the good guys. Either you
pel should, and must, play in our lives. Let us take virtue, love freedom (meaning you’re with the US) or you’re a
charity, love, and peace into the world. Let us be hopeful terrorist (you’re against the US). When we kill people it’s
and kind. Let us be examples of the believers. for a valid reason (self-defense, democracy), when they
1. “Mormons Take Care of their Own,” Marketplace, kill people it’s for no good reason (they are hate-filled,
October 3, 2008. Accessed online at: http://marketplace. ideologically driven murderers).
publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/mormon_wel- If you take a closer look however, the validity of the
fare/ US paradigm quickly breaks down. There are other op-
tions besides being a supporter of the US on the one hand,
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or a supporter of Al-Qaeda on the other. For example, a ing in the killing himself, allow his Army comrades to kill
BBC poll taken in September 2007 showed that some 57% innocent, fellow Muslims, or 3) he could attack his fellow
of Iraqis supported attacks on US troops in Iraq, while soldiers and try to prevent them from killing innocent,
exactly 0% of Iraqis polled supported Al-Qaeda attacks fellow Muslims.
against civilians. 2 So despite President Bush declaring, Fox News reports that such a dilemma was on Akbar’s
“You're either with us or against us in the fight against mind, citing an entry in Akbar’s diary, "I may not have killed
terror,” most Iraqis are neither. 3 They don’t support the any Muslims, but being in the Army is the same thing. I
U.S. occupation of their country, with all the bombings, may have to make a choice very soon on who to kill. . . I
shootings, detentions, torture, and sectarian divisions that will have to decide to kill my Muslim brothers fighting for
come with it, nor do they support the presence of Al-Qaeda Saddam Hussein or my battle buddies.”4
in their country, with the bombings, shootings, torture, It’s clear which path Akbar finally decided to take. Fox
sectarianism, and religious extremism that comes with it. News reports that “Prosecutors say Akbar launched the at-
Instead, most Iraqis view violence just like the rest of us. tack at his camp — days before the soldiers were to move
It is justified in self-defense, to protect the innocent, to into Iraq — because he was concerned about U.S. troops
defend their religion, and to free themselves from tyranny killing fellow Muslims in the Iraq war.”5 Fox News report-
(whether at the hands of Saddam or the Americans). They ed further that Sgt. Eric Tanner, a brigade legal assistant,
feel that violence against occupying soldiers is justified testified that Akbar told a major that, “I did it because I'm
while violence against civilians is not. Strangely most of Muslim. They were going to kill Muslims and rape Muslim
these reasons fit quite well with the basic guidelines on the women.”6
use of violence as outlined in international law (violence Another Fox News article mentions that, “Defense
is justified in self-defense and against foreign occupiers). attorneys have said Akbar was especially worried about
Seeing the “War on Terror” from this new paradigm talk among soldiers concerning alleged plans to rape Iraqi
helps us reevaluate the case of Sgt. Akbar. Why did he women. The defense had the jury hear a diary entry of
carry out the attack? As an African-American convert to Akbar overhearing such talk.”7
Islam and member of the US Army which was then in Though it is unclear how many instances have taken
the process of invading Iraq, Akbar had essentially three place where US soldiers have raped Iraqi women, some
courses of action. He could 1) participate in the invasion, cases have become public, lending credibility to Akbar’s
and thereby participate in killing innocent, fellow Muslims, fears at the outset of the invasion. For example, the Asso-
2) he could desert from the Army, and while not participat- ciated Press reported in July 2006 on the rape trial of Pvt.
Steven D. Green:
According to a 10-page federal affidavit, Green and Muslims from being killed or raped in an unprovoked US
three other soldiers from the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 101st invasion was nevertheless prominent in Akbar’s decision to
Airborne Division had talked about raping the young [Iraqi] carry out the attack. In fact if Akbar was trying to prevent
woman, whom they first saw while working at the check- the killing of his fellow Muslims, he may have had some
point. On the day of the attack, the document said, Green success. Fox News summarized the comments of Col. Ben
and other soldiers drank alcohol and changed out of their Hodges, who was himself wounded in Akbar's attack, as
uniforms to avoid detection before going to the woman's follows: “Akbar's attack took out of action key personnel
house. Green covered his face with a brown T-shirt. Once responsible for planning troop movements [during the
there, the affidavit said, Green took three members of the invasion]. He said that resulted in the brigade being slow
family – an adult male and female, and a girl estimated to to isolate the city of Najaf, allowing some Iraqi fighters to
be 5 years old – into a bedroom, after which shots were escape.”10 Though most Americans have little sympathy
heard from inside.” Green came to the bedroom door and for members of the Iraqi army, simply considering them
told everyone, ‘I just killed them. All are dead,’” the affida- Saddam’s evil agents, in fact the Iraqi military was full of
vit said. The affidavit is based on interviews conducted by regular Iraqis who were forced to join the army as con-
the FBI and military investigators with three unidentified scripts. Their lives are worth something too.
soldiers assigned to Green's platoon. Two of the soldiers In reviewing the circumstances behind Sgt. Akbar’s
said they witnessed another soldier and Green rape the March 23rd 2003 attack, given his realistic assumption that
woman.8 the US Army was killing many innocent Muslims during
To be fair, Akbar was also upset at some of his fellow the invasion (Some 100,000 were killed in the invasion ac-
soldiers for the way they treated him. His diary states, “I cording to a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal)
suppose they want to punk me or just humiliate me. Per- and that Muslim women would likely be raped, a more
haps they feel that I will not do anything about that. They sympathetic picture of the man emerges. In fact, his ac-
are right about that. I am not going to do anything about it tions appear quite reasonable. It is human nature to want
as long as I stay here. But as soon as I am in Iraq, I am go- to protect and defend members of one’s own family, tribe,
ing to try and kill as many of them as possible.”9 The Fox nation, or religious group from the aggression of outsid-
News articles do not detail what Akbar’s fellow soldiers ers. Because Akbar identified more strongly as a Muslim
did to “punk” or “humiliate” him. than as an American, and because it was the Americans
So while anger for his own mistreatment seems to have committing aggression against Iraqis, not the other way
been a motive for the killing, the desire to protect his fellow around, he considered it a responsibility to protect his

fellow Muslims from the US attack. portant lessons. First, it is important that we follow the
As Mormons, we should feel additional sympathy for lead of the majority of Iraqis and not buy into the Bush
Hasan Akbar given our own religious history. Every Mor- administration’s false paradigm which encourages us to
mon child learns the story from the Book of Mormon of think there are only two sides in the conflict. There is a
Captain Moroni, who raised the title of liberty and defended third side, those who are against terror regardless of who
the Nephite people from the invading Lamanite Armies. perpetrates it, whether it’s the US government bombing,
The Book of Mormon states that Captain Moroni and the invading, and occupying countries, or whether its Al-Qaeda
Nephite people “were inspired by a better cause, for they blowing up market places. We need to be skeptical of those
were not fighting for monarchy nor power but they were in power, and question our leaders before allowing them
fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and to send us off to kill in foreign lands. Finally, it’s critical
their children and their all, yea, for their rites of worship that we make an effort to understand the actions of our
and their church (Alma 43:45).” enemies, of people like Hasan Akbar. Some of our current
Ironically, since the Bush administration, like the wick- enemies certainly are hate-filled ideologically driven mur-
ed King Amalickiah, “did stir up” the American people “to derers. However, others are simply defending themselves
anger against the people” of Iraq, through lies and distor- and their religion and their families from the violence of
tions, many American soldiers felt they were fighting for the power-hungry ideologically driven murderers that
the same noble reasons Akbar fought for. Many US soldiers were in our own White House. If we don’t consider the
that invaded Iraq thought they were defending their fami- violent resistance of people like Hasan Akbar legitimate,
lies by preventing the perpetrators of 9/11 from striking what use of violence ever is? Maybe in some cases our
again, when in fact the Iraqi regime had nothing to do with supposed enemies should really be our friends, and our
that crime. Instead, these soldiers participated in a crime supposed friends, including our generals and politicians,
of their own against the people of Iraq, who in fact were our enemies.
no threat to them or their families. Thinking they were
doing what’s right, these soldiers found themselves in the 1. “Army Sergeant to be Tried in Grenade Attack.” Fox-
position of the Lamanite warriors, who had been misled news.com, March 4, 2004. Accessed online at: http://www.
by their rulers into fighting a war of conquest (Alma 47:1). foxnews.com/story/0,2933,113277,00.html
This makes the death of every US soldier in Iraq all the 2. Iraq Poll September 2007 for BBC and ABC News.
more heartbreaking. Accessed online at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/
The tragic case of Hasan Akbar teaches us some im- hi/pdfs/10_09_07_iraqpollaug2007_full.pdf
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Abraham’s One Percent Doctrine and the Criminal U.S. Assault on Fallujah 22
3. “You Are Either With Us or Against Us,” CNN.COM,

November 6, 2001. Accessed online at: http://archives.cnn.
com/2001/US/11/06/gen.attack.on.terror/
Abraham’s One Percent Doctrine and
4. “GI Wrote About Killing,” Foxnews.com, April 15,
2005. Accessed online at: http://www.foxnews.com/sto-
the Criminal U.S. Assault on Fallujah
by Joshua Madson
ry/0,2933,153490,00.html
5. “Akbar Sentenced to Death for Grenade Attack,” Fox- In the books of Matthew and Luke there is this radical
news.com, April 29, 2005. Accessed online at: http://www. statement from John the Baptist, “do not presume to say
foxnews.com/story/0,2933,154969,00.html to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell
6. “Witness: Soldier Admitted to Grenade Attack,” Fox- you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for
news.com, May 24, 2004. Accessed online at: http://www. Abraham.”1 For centuries the Jewish people had considered
foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120772,00.html themselves chosen by virtue of their lineage. They claimed
7. “GI Wrote About Killing,” Foxnews.com, April 15, lineage from the great patriarch Abraham and with it the
2005. Accessed online at: http://www.foxnews.com/sto- covenant right to occupy Palestine. They considered them-
ry/0,2933,153490,00.html selves a chosen nation written on God’s very hands. John,
8. “Ex-GI Accused in Rape of Iraqi, Killings,” By Tom like most prophets, challenged the very foundation of their
Whitmire, Associated Press, July 4, 2006 and printed in national and religious narrative. What made Israel chosen
the Washington Post. Accessed online at: http://www. or special if God could raise up children of Abraham from
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/03/ mere stones? In the last week of Jesus’ life he taught what
AR2006070300399.html it meant to be a child of Abraham and contrasted that with
9. “GI Wrote About Killing,” Foxnews.com, April 15, the works of the devil, specifically murder: “If you were
2005. Accessed online at: http://www.foxnews.com/sto- Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abra-
ry/0,2933,153490,00.html ham did... You are of your father the devil, and your will
10. Witness: Akbar Attack Compromised Iraq War,” is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the
Foxnews.com, April 25, 2005. Accessed online at: http:// beginning.”2 Jesus made clear that being a child of Abraham
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,154529,00.html was explicitly tied to our deeds and our desires. Jesus also
taught that murder is a work of the devil which stands in
stark contrast to compassion.
What are the works of Abraham and how can we be-
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come children of Abraham? Jewish, Islamic and Christian It is common for us to speak of the United States as
traditions all revere Abraham and yet we rarely do his a chosen land. We often hear it compared to a city on a
works. Often when we think of Abraham’s works we think hill, a beacon of light, a nation founded on Judeo-Christian
of the Akedah or binding of Isaac. Certainly this is a sig- values. But we, like ancient Israel, forget that it is one’s
nificant event in Abraham’s life but there are also other desires and works that matter and not the narratives and
works we would do well to remember. From the very be- labels we give ourselves.
ginning, Abraham’s great commission was to be a blessing In 2004, we again had the opportunity to choose whose
to all the families of the earth. Throughout Abraham’s life works we would do. The Iraqi city of Fallujah was the site
he practiced hospitality with all those he came in contact of the brutal murder of four American private security
with. Perhaps the best illustration of Abraham’s compas- workers who were burnt, dragged, and hung from a bridge
sion is his pleading on behalf of the cities of Sodom and over the Euphrates River. Fallujah had become synonymous
Gomorrah. with the Iraqi insurgency, synonymous with everything
Sodom and Gomorrah were the most wicked cities in that was supposedly wrong about Iraq. Much like Sodom
all of Canaan. The Book of Genesis relates that, “The outcry and Gomorrah, it was considered by the US government
against Sodom and Gomorrah” was so great, and the sins and media as the most wicked city in the land. Lieutenant
of their inhabitants so blatant, that God had to “go down” Colonel Gary Brandl perhaps described our attitude best,
to see it for himself to believe it.3 And yet when Abraham “The enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He's in Fal-
learned the cities would be destroyed by fire, Abraham had luja. And we're going to destroy him.”4 However, unlike
compassion and pled their cause. Unlike Vice President with the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, there was no Abra-
Cheney, who advocates bombing and invading an entire ham in the US government, or if there was, his voice fell
country for the sake of a few evil men, Abraham knew that on deaf ears. There in the ancient homeland of the great
if there were even a handful of innocents living in those Abraham, the United States Military rained fire from the
two cities, the cost of destroying them would be too high. sky and committed one of the most brutal massacres of
Abraham advocated vigorously with the Lord to save even the war to date.
the wicked for the sake of the innocent. At some level we In early April 2004, around 2,000 troops from the US
must address the implications of Abraham’s works towards 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, supported by jet fighters
Sodom and Gomorrah. What does he tell us about the in- and attack helicopters, assaulted Fallujah in an effort to
nocent victims in war, about what the military has termed defeat Sunni resistant groups there. As the urban battle
collateral damage? with resistance fighters and local residents wore on, the

death toll began to mount. Doctors from the local hospital

reported 600 Iraqi dead, most of them civilians, includ-
ing women and children.5 The Marines responded to the
doctors’ reports by closing the main hospital, a war crime
according to the Geneva Conventions. Ibrahim Younis, the
Iraq emergency coordinator for Médecins sans Frontières,
visited Falluja during the two week assault, and reported
that, "The Americans put a sniper position on top of the
hospital's water tower and had troops in the single-storey
building . . . The hospital had four operating theatres, which
could no longer be used. If they had been working, it would
have saved many lives.”6 A public relations disaster oc-
curred as images and video surfaced resembling mass mur-
der rather than a battle. As the assault became increasingly
unpopular internationally, the Marines agreed to an uneasy
ceasefire, leaving the city outside their control, and setting
the stage for a second assault six months later.
The second U.S. assault on Fallujah, in November 2004,
was originally code named, appropriately, “Thanksgiving
Massacre” before the British encouraged a more modest
name change to “Phantom Fury.”7 It began with nearly
two months of aerial attacks. The city was cordoned off,
and food, water, and power were cut off in an effort to
put strain on the local population. Some 300,000 Fallujans
abandoned their homes and fled the city for safety, passing
through US military checkpoints. Contrary to the Geneva
Convention, any male under age 45 was denied exit and
forced back by gunpoint, while machine-gun nests killed
anyone who tried to escape across the Euphrates River.8

On November 18, 2004 some 12,000 troops invaded Fal- baric warheads, also known as a “fuel-air” weapon. This
lujah. In an effort to control information during the second weapon was specifically designed to raze buildings. Fuel-Air
assault, the first target of operation Phantom Fury was the weapons are known for creating a cloud of volatile gases
Fallujah hospital, “because the US military believed it was which “is then ignited and the subsequent fireball sears
the source of rumors about heavy casualties [during the first the surrounding area while consuming the oxygen in this
assault]. ‘It's a center of propaganda,’ a senior American area. The lack of oxygen creates an enormous overpres-
officer said.”9 The hospital’s staff was captured and snip- sure ... Personnel under the cloud are literally crushed to
ers were positioned on the roofs of hospitals once again. death.” Marines used these weapons to clear structures,
The remaining population, unable to flee and consisting of assuming anyone inside any house or building must be an
30,000 to 50,000 civilians, was considered enemy combat- insurgent, ignoring the fact that roughly 50,000 civilians
ants.10 This means that the same measures the U.S. military remained in the city.16
used to kill alleged insurgents (described further below), There is also evidence that white phosphorous was used
were inevitably used against civilians. as a weapon and not solely for illumination as originally
Houses, schools, and mosques were ravaged. According stated by the US State Department. In fact, the US State
to Fallujah's compensation commissioner, 36,000 of the Department later issued a correction noting that Field Ar-
city's 50,000 homes were destroyed, along with 60 schools tillery magazine revealed that white phosphorous had in
and 65 mosques and shrines.11 Fallujans were also illegally fact been used “as a potent psychological weapon against
denied medical treatment from Iraq’s Red Crescent.12 One the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes ....”17 This
US commander described the rules of engagement: “If you was likely more than psychological, however, as accord-
see someone with a cell phone, put a bullet in their f---inging to the BBC, anyone exposed to these weapons would
head.”13 An AP photographer described US helicopters kill- have experienced the following: “Phosphorus burns on the
ing a family of five trying to ford a river to safety. "There
skin are deep and painful... These weapons are particularly
were American snipers on top of the hospital shooting nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until
everyone. With no medical supplies, people died from it disappears... it could burn right down to the bone.”18
their wounds.”14 To avoid such a fate, insurgents would have to leave their
The attack against Fallujah was made even more hor- fortified positions, at which point they could be slaughtered
rific by the use of thermobaric weapons, white phosphorous, by conventional U.S. attacks. Field Artillery describes how
and possibly an advanced form of napalm.15 One of the Marines, “fired ‘shake and bake’ missions at the insurgents,
weapons used by the marines was equipped with thermo- using [White Phosphorous] to flush them out and [High

Explosives] to take them out.”19 5. Rory Mcarthy, “Uneasy Truce in the City of Ghosts”,
Before the invasion of Fallujah, Sgt. Maj. Carlton W. Guardian, April 24, 2004. http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Kent spoke of the coming battle of Fallujah as being no world/2004/apr/24/iraq.rorymccarthy
different than the capture of the ancient city of Hue dur- 6. Rory Mcarthy, “Uneasy Truce in the City of
ing the 1968 Tet Offensive in Viet Nam. “You're all in the Ghosts.”
process of making history. This is another Hue city in the 7. Sarah Sands “Our troops' life in Basra: smile, shoot,
making. I have no doubt, if we do get the word, that each smile?”, Telegraph, December 24, 2004. http://www.tele-
and every one of you is going to do what you have always graph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/1479738/
done — kick some butt.”20 Our-troops-life-in-Basra-smile-shoot-smile.html
Perhaps, when we remember wars we should do as Kurt 8. Reuters Dispatch, November 5, 2004
Vonnegut suggested “we should take off our clothes and 9. Richard Oppel and Robert Worth, “G.I.'s Open At-
paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and tack to Take Falluja From Iraq Rebels”, New York Times,
grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than November 8, 2004. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/
noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns.”21 international/middleeast/08falluja.html
How many innocents does it take in a Fallujah before we 10. George Monbiot, “Behind the Phosphorus Clouds
refuse to destroy it? Abraham was willing to spare Sodom are War Crimes within War Crimes”, The Guardian, No-
and Gomorrah for a handful of innocents and yet we are vember 22 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/
willing to engage in the barbarism of the highest order; in- nov/22/usa.iraq1
nocents be damned. What does the destruction of Fallujah 11. Mike Marqusee, “A name that lives in infamy” The
say about our nation, our narrative, and our city on a hill? Guardian, November 10 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Who is our father if we cannot even approach the works world/2005/nov/10/usa.iraq
of Abraham? 12. George Monbiot, “Behind the phosphorus”
13. Newsweek, “Probing Bloodbath.” Evan Thomas and
1. Matthew 3:9 Scoot Johnson, June 12, 2006 http://www.newsweek.com/
2. John 8:39-47 id/52312
3. Genesis 18:20-21 14. Marqusee, “A name that lives in infamy”
4. Paul Wood, “Fixing the problem of Falluja” BBC, 15. There is now evidence that MK77, a form of Napalm,
November 7, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_ was used during the invasion although there is not yet
east/3989639.stm definitive proof that it was used in Fallujah. http://www.
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TO ARTICLE
The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Between Christianity and the Libertarian Left: How Wide the Gap? Part II 27
rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/foto/documento_minis- put secular radicals off, uncomfortable with an emphasis on

tero.jpg words that suggest the primacy of feeling or emotion. How
16. George Monbiot, “Behind the phosphorus” might this Christian idea (or ideal) fit into a particularly
17. US State Department Website, http://usinfo.state. libertarian socialist agenda? We must be careful. Precise
gov/media/Archive_Index/Illegal_Weapons_in_Fallujah. parallels shouldn’t be made between Christian notions and
html (Resource no Longer Available) social arrangements recommended by post-Enlightenment
18. BBC, “US used white phosphorous in Iraq,” Nov. critics of the state. But the points of convergence between
16, 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664. the two platforms (and the ways in which they both diverge
stm from more pro-state, authoritarian types of radicalism) are
19. “The Fight for Fallujah,” Field Artillery, March-April frequent enough. And some notion of the word ‘love’ is
2005, By Captain James T. Cobb, First Lieutenant Christo- essential to helping us understand how and why this is.
pher A. LaCour and Sergeant First Class William H. Hight, As religious radicals from the Bohemian Petr Chelcicky
pg. 26. Accessed online, http://www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/ to the French Protestant and anarchist Jacques Ellul have
ProfWriting/2-2AARlow.pdf noted, love takes the place of law in original Christian
20. “U.S. Troops Enter Fallujah”, CBS/AP, Nov. 8, thought and practice. By love, of course, the ecstatic feel-
2004. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/08/iraq/ ings that accompany an erotic or romantic bond are not
main654164.shtml meant. Nor do Paul and others mean by love the special,
21. Vonnegut, Kurt, Cat’s Cradle heightened, even obsessive affection felt by parents for
their children. Indeed, Christian love is clearly intended
to function, at least in part, as a check on these forms of
attachment by emphasizing one’s responsibility to place
the neighbor’s interests on the same plane as one’s own.
Between Christianity and the Libertar- Reason and compassion make the Christian see that social
ian Left: How Wide the Gap? Part II claims are as worthy as familial claims. This is love under-
by Marc Young Continued from Mormon Worker Issue #5. stood as solidarity.
When Paul originally spoke about the law, and the free-
Love: Religious or radical? dom of new believers from it, he was naturally thinking of
Now, what about this love talk, employed so much by Jewish law, at least in the main. But he did not mean just
Jesus and Paul? It is the sort of language that has so often religious law, that is, forms of liturgy and rules of belief.
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TO ARTICLE
For Jewish law regulated both the worship and the material lent among populations under the influence of anarchism
lives of the community’s members. As numerous students in the last century aren’t hard to discern. It is almost quaint,
of early Christianity have emphasized, spirituality and to contemporary ears, to hear Gerald Brenan and the histo-
politics were as fused and intertwined in what we today rian Hugh Thomas’s descriptions of atheistic workers and
call the Middle-East as they have been in most times and peasants in revolutionary Spain behaving in very ‘Chris-
places in human history. The law told Jews both to worship tian’ ways – that is, observing strict sexual fidelity to their
the one, true, unnamable God with all their heart and not partners, closing bordellos and scrupulously respecting
to kill. It told them not to steal or to covet. It aspired to social property. And then of course, in the realm of anar-
be a guideline for all aspects of life, spiritual and material. chist theory, there is that well-known post-revolutionary
Which of course indicates the error of those who argue that scenario according to which, with the elimination of the
Paul’s notion of Christian freedom only refers to ritualistic state and its instruments of coercion, punishment for mis-
matters (i.e. that he’s only discussing how circumcision is deeds is wholly or largely replaced by libertarian tools of
unnecessary if one has accepted the Lord in one’s heart, crime-fighting: solidarity, moral suasion and social pres-
etc). He emphasized, on the contrary, believers’ freedom sure from one’s peers. Here is not the place to consider
from the whole package. (“But if you are led by the Spirit, whether or not radical Syndicalists or leftists who gener-
you are not under law.”)18 ally agree with Bakunin and Kropotkin have modified or
Which of course never meant that followers of Jesus should qualify their movement’s founders’ views on crime,
should be libertines. Confident that God loved them, Chris- punishment and incarceration. Our point is merely to in-
tians were, in the times prior to a divine re-ordering of the dicate the interesting juncture between Christian freedom
world, to fulfill the important ethical and social command- and anti-authoritarian thought on law. Both the preacher
ments precisely because they treated others with love. They and the conscientious Wobbly are barred from taking their
would not steal livestock from their neighbor because that neighbor’s bike, but it is neither fear of punishment nor
would cause harm. Sleeping with a married person would respect for the criminal code that dissuades them from
cause a neighbor hurt. Freedom is absolute at the same such a theft. If it is, they’re fakes.
time as its key ethical tenets become self-enforcing. On Other points of Christian-libertarian convergence are
the other hand, invitations or requests to serve the state less obvious and perhaps more debatable. But they are there.
or armed forces were to be resisted, for they had nothing Ellul stresses, in his critique of capitalism and Marxist so-
to do with love. cialism, these systems’ enormous confidence in technique
Similarities with libertarian theory and practice preva- and productivity,19 their objective of human happiness

through abundance, through the conquest of Nature. In movement. He sees a ministry springing from itinerants
anarchism and radical Syndicalism strains with a different pushed off the farm in a region and an epoch characterized
nuance have always been dominant, ones that emphasize by imperial urbanization and rural exploitation. Peasants
liberation from excessive toil right now, or at least tomor- who lose access to land learn crafts (carpentry?) and sell
row, not in some golden future. Free time to learn, to aid their labor.20 A leader makes a virtue out of their home-
others, but not necessarily to access shops overflowing lessness, instilling a sense of self-worth and pride where
with goods. Libertarians have never denied that the good before there was shame at finding oneself near the bottom
human life requires a material basis – sufficient food, drink, of the social heap (and in a material state more destitute
libraries, transport – but their emphasis has not been quite than that of many slaves). But poor itinerants need to eat
the same as others’. “We do not live by bread alone, but of and so forge an alliance with householders who, though still
course we have to be fed,” might have been a libertarian relatively poor, can offer a table as thanks for some healing
slogan. It certainly encapsulates Jesus’ view. service, kindness or insight.21 Literate persons, intellectu-
In this connection, Crossan has advanced interesting als without access to wealth and attracted to an agenda of
theories about the sociological nature of the Nazarene’s peace, brotherhood and shared food and goods, join on...
and write down the central tenets of the fraternity.
Does this sound so different from a European move-
ment in the nineteenth century, one fed by landless labor-
ers inspired by Bakuninist disciples who either stayed and
struggled in the countryside or took their attitudes and
ideology into the factories of newly industrializing cities
such as Barcelona and Turin? A movement led, at times,
by skilled, autonomous craftspeople fearful of voracious
industrial capitalism, as in the Jura region. A movement
not enamored of the five-year plan but searching for some
means of returning integrity and dignity to those processes
through which humans produce goods and ensure their
own re-production. One that said proletarians can at least
partially reclaim their humanity by collectively running
their own factory or office, or network of factories and of-

fices, rather than being satisfied with either a ‘fair day’s pay’ said God would intervene on their side as soon as cannon
or the achievement of a technocrat’s production target. balls came whizzing their way. Faithful or not, they under-
Let’s not fail to give space to the differences between stood that material change depended on their actions, as
the traditions. On these, Bakunin for one was clear. We can Engels surely knew when he wrote about their struggle in
probably say that his hostility to God and to Christianity the Peasant War in Germany.
derived chiefly from what he perceived to be the effects of Moving to contemporary North American history, it is
religious belief – attitudes of servitude and debasement on evident that the struggle for civic equality by blacks was
the part of many persons, presumption of power by others. nourished in churches where a belief in God’s grace was
“All men owe [to prophets, priests, and diviners] faith and central. Indeed, the theologian James Cone argues that
absolute obedience; slaves of God, they must also be so black Christian belief in eternal bliss in divine company,
of Church and State, insofar as the latter is blessed by the after this life is done, was necessary to sustain African
Church.”22 Similarly, the Russian theorist and man of ac- Americans in their earthly struggle against segregation.
tion cited God’s failure to pass the test of reason. “Nothing Atheists, he suggests, could neither have weathered the
that hasn’t been analyzed and confirmed by experience or storm nor remembered that white people were, after all,
by the most severe critique can be accepted...”23 He was humans ultimately worthy of love. He makes the case that
a son of the Enlightenment who denied that faith was a a black man or woman looking around his or society in,
valid category of learning. And of course he denounced say, 1952, would see no political reason to justify a claim
religion’s history of shed blood. for freedom. But black people knew “...we have a freedom
But Bakunin was only partially correct when he de- not made by human hands.”24 One could reply that this
picted religion as, objectively speaking, a brick in the wall is like grasping that all humans are entitled to equality
known as the status quo. Of course the Church hierarchy because once, in Nature, it was so. No religious belief,
– Catholic and Reformed – often served this function. And strictly speaking, is required. But Cone’s point is that faith
certainly hope for eternal life ‘in the sky’ encouraged the in God gave African Americans, in their concrete situation,
passivity of many. But that’s just part of the tale. Deter- a reference to justify their quest, a reference beyond what
mination to make the world conform to biblical ethics was socially or historically apparent.
spurred peasant rebellions throughout the Middle Ages. Reasons for qualifying and revising traditional com-
German-speaking peasants who mobilized in the 1525 rebel- munist (authoritarian and libertarian) perspectives on faith
lion, cited above, were not rendered less militant because are similarly revealed in the anti-Apartheid record of the
they believed their communist preacher Münzer when he South African black congregations. They are boosted by

the fact that two of the writers cited in this piece, Jacques with a grand act of supernatural intervention. That’s the
Ellul and Tom Wright, both advocates of justice against philosophical indictment of classical Christian faith in a
the violent state, believe quite literally in the divine pro- nutshell.
gram described by Paul. We see a coupling of theological But again, not so fast. Seen from a historical perspective,
conservatism and political radicalism throughout Latin Jerusalem’s place in the religiosity versus reason debate is
America. In short, it not just evident that admirers of Jesus more complicated. Here, once more, we make use of El-
can be radicals; it is also evident that those who believe in lul’s perspective, one that takes seriously ancient Rome’s
the literal truth of Christ’s resurrection and eternal life in charges of atheism against the Jews and their upstart, Jesus-
the ‘world to come’ are neither automatically passive nor movement cousins. As Ellul notes, a key function of Judeo-
defenders of the status quo, although they may be. Indeed, Christian monotheism, historically speaking, has been to
perhaps they think, as Wright and Ellul seem to, that the denude the world of the sacred.26 In its birthplace, this
only way the kingdom will come is if humans model what tradition eventually routed the pantheon of Greek and Ro-
Paul said is in store for us in a splendid future. “God does man gods (who undoubtedly owed much of their origin to
not do [works],” Ellul writes, almost acknowledging that older beliefs in natural sprites, the gods of rocks and rivers
humans will be the builders of the kingdom; “we have this and crops, etc.). Christianity’s later spread through Europe
responsibility.”25 saw similar results, as did (incompletely, to be sure) its
exportation on the back of colonialism and imperialism to
Reason and faith the Americas and Africa. In the new faith, as in Judaism, a
And still, the gap between reason and faith is there. As- creator God sat ‘above’ or outside what he had made, but
suming the value of some of the arguments already made, creation itself was material, generally obedient to the rules
secular radicals appear to remain at loggerheads with many of inanimate forces. The stream, humans decided, was
Christians on the matter of science versus faith (and from water; no local spirit inhabited the foam and made it flow.
this confrontation are not automatically spared those Chris- A materialist conception of things was partially attained.
tians who acknowledge the veracity of evolution). Religion (Now it is true that elements of ancient Greek philosophy
remains objectionable ultimately for its superstitions. The had already entertained the notion that Nature functions
Son of God is an unintelligible title for a human being. according to objective laws, that the earth itself moves and
Dead bodies remain so. Virgins cannot bear children. Most is hence not the static center, and that the caprices of the
importantly, perhaps, no cosmic creator, listener and su- gods, who after all might not exist, aren’t causal factors.
pervisor is waiting to once again violate the laws of Nature But these were the insights of some thinkers, not the core

of a social program set to spread). causation is the deity’s very nature). At the time, most
God, as the transcendent maker ‘out there,’ was only Christians were outraged by this thesis. The traditional God
safe for the moment. If the earth is material stuff, so might had received a knife thrust. Jews had, for their part, already
be the heavens. After Copernicus and Galileo demolished ex-communicated Spinoza. But a monotheistic spiritual-
the notion that the earth is the focal point of the universe, ity remained explicit in his pantheistic argument. In our
Spinoza drew his conclusions and depicted a universe own time, over the course of the last century, rationalist/
entirely governed by networks of cause and effect. Phe- existentialist theologians like John Robinson, Paul Tillich
nomena occur as points in an infinite web of time and and Jack Spong, unwilling to defend the literal truth of
space; no universal ear and will unpredictably respond, or what they regard as the myths of Christianity, presented
decline to respond, to human petitions for favor in a way their God as an immanent one, as the “ground of being”
that might violate this tissue of causation. Virgin births and rather than a being at all, and hence not resident in any
the resuscitation of corpses are indeed untenable as literal, single place in particular.28 For these Christians, heaven’s
historically occurring events, since we understand, partially time was up – but they remained in good standing in their
at least, how mammals are born and perish. Science, the churches, sometimes, in the case of two of those mentioned,
method through which we grasp how Nature functions, occupying (Anglican) bishoprics. Even if they did not cite
becomes the pious activity in Spinoza’s view. Spinoza – and even if they were not in complete agreement
Note the word ‘pious.’ For Spinoza, whom Bakunin with him – their debt to him was evident enough.
adored despite his frustration with the rationalist’s tena- But now we jump back to Peter Kropotkin in the nine-
cious adherence to divine references, God has not been teenth century. Some readers won’t agree that the former
demolished. Rather, He has been placed in the correct prince’s greatest insights were not those regarding the orga-
light: infinite substance, characterized by thought and ex- nization of a libertarian communist society. But Kropotkin
tension.27 Perhaps no other philosopher mentions God so was first a geographer and naturalist, observing the life
many times and so determinedly rejects the tag of atheist. cycles and behavior of fauna during his expeditions in Sibe-
God is Nature. Einstein will later be able to say he believes ria. In studies that eventually sprang from these adventures
in God – the God of Spinoza. he observed how cooperation between organisms, at least
So this Jewish visionary and lover of liberty completed those of the same species, is preponderant – and of greater
the removal of the sacred...but then rendered everything, importance to natural survival than is competition.29 He
from trees to cats to children, sacred again by making God saw how a key insight of Darwin had been exaggerated by
immanent. Being is God and the fruit of God (since infinite commentators with a penchant for rugged individualism

and rivalry. Kroptokin, on his journey to theories about who fought Nazi Germany, Salvadorans in the 80s and
mutual aid in human society, identified solidarity – or love 90s and southern campesinos in Mexico more recently)
in the natural world, if you like – and provided an important who defend the right of the oppressed to bear arms in
corrective to evolutionary theory. self-defense. For it does seem evident that Jesus and the
Of course, a hard version of survival of the fittest, with early Christian community were determined to resist evil
all its social Darwinian accessories, prevailed in the intel- differently, the best efforts of just-war theorists notwith-
lectual circles of bourgeois society for the next century. standing. But here too, differences of opinion may not be
But recent years have seen the proliferation, in media first tremendous. Tolstoy was both an anarchist and a Christian,
scientific and then general, of stories describing the likely of course, and renounced violence. Atheists like Kropot-
presence of an ‘altruism’ gene, or genes, in organisms’ bio- kin did uphold the justice of killing tyrants, for example,
logical code.30 For backers of mutual aid, this is something but only by those who did not seek power themselves,
of an intellectual vindication, if hardly a surprise. In Nature, i.e. anti-authoritarians.31 Meanwhile, most revolutionary
in short, all is not cutthroat, as sensible people always knew. Syndicalists have long renounced terror, categorizing the
Christians, for their part, might have presented this devel- tactics practiced by some anarchists in certain historical
opment in their own language, e.g. “Science discovers the periods as unproductive explosions of frustration. Dismis-
Holy Spirit at work in our forests and meadows – as well sive of the sort of insurrectionary war that so enchanted
as in ourselves,” though naturally Kropotkin would have Guevara, they call for the general strike. When workers
disapproved of such mystical talk. decline to run capitalism further, the door to the new world
becomes ajar. Or, as the Q and A offered by the Industrial
A revolution in the human heart Workers of the World puts it, “Violence is not necessary
In this article we have not tried to artificially narrow when, united as a class, all that workers need to do is fold
the gap between the libertarian left in particular and clas- their arms to gain the world.” Enemies who might have
sical Christian thought and practice, but to honestly show to be constrained can still be loved – an important point
that gap for what it is: something smaller than a chasm. for those who remember, with Marx and others, that the
Some readers might say that what is missing, what might responsibility of the proletariat is not merely to liberate
enlarge that gap, is a serious exploration of the two move- itself, but all men and women.
ments’ respective attitudes toward violence or force. That The specifically Christian insight that many secular
objection doubtless contains some truth, despite the ample leftists could profit from is, we will suggest, a substan-
number of radical believers (think of leftist Christians tial one – and hopefully already apparent. It is that social

transformation depends on a revolution in the human heart. 20. Crossan, The Birth of Christianity, pp. 346-350
Better put, that there is a dialectical bond between struc- 21. Ibid., p. 407. In this connection, also see pp. 294-295
tural change and empathy. Correct opinion, whatever that for Crossan’s interesting discussion of the healing/curing
is, and revolutionary action are insufficient to make a new distinction. While he clearly recognizes that treatments
world, although they are certainly necessary ingredients of-fered by Jesus and his disciples could not have been
in the dish. cures for pathogens, he makes the case that a movement
In that long meantime before the new world, in the here that brought outsiders back ‘in,’ that relieved social stresses
and now, there are acts, works and struggles to accomplish. and gave a sense of belonging to those at the bottom of
And we, radicals and people of faith, may be bolstered by a society, could have brought relief – of varying degrees and
confidence that existence is ultimately good. That life for depending on the condition – to individuals’ symptoms
human beings can be good. That compassion stands higher and suffering. He quotes Rodney Stark, in the context of a
than anger. That there is a social virtue called justice, never discussion of ancient epidemics, to the effect that “modern
the same as the law, so warmly discussed by one Span- medical experts believe that conscientious nursing without
ish anarchist who, among his other sins, once accepted a any medications could cut the mortality rate by two thirds
ministerial chair. “Burning hot, justice must be alive,” he or even more.” p. 296
said, “justice cannot be restricted within the bounds of a 22. Michael Bakunin, Federalismo, Socialismo y Antit-
profession...Justice, I firmly believe, is so subtle a thing that eolo-gismo, Obras de M. Bakunin Vol. 3 (Ediciones Júcar:
to interpret [it] one has only need of a heart.”32 Or as Paul Madrid, 1977), p.87. My translation from the Spanish.
said, if the Spirit guides you, you are free. Particularly, an 23. Ibid., pp. 90-91
ironic Bakunin might have added, if others in society are 24. James H. Cone, God of the Oppressed (Seabury
guided by the Spirit as well. Press: New York, 1975), p.140
25. Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity (William B.
18. Galatians:5. Consider verses 13-18 Eerd-mans: Grand Rapids, 1986), p. 5
19. Jacques Ellul, Changer de Révolution (Seuil: Paris, 26. Ibid., pp. 56-57
1982) pp. 30-33. Here the author reviews how, for Marx, the 27. My understanding of Spinoza’s thought is derived
rationale and practice of technique is most fully realized from R.H.M. Elwes’s translation of The Ethics contained in
under communism, a system theoretically free from the The Rationalists (Anchor: Garden City, New York, 1974),
profit-re-lated constraints that can slow the application of pp. 179-406
technology under capitalism. 28. Certainly, many orthodox theologians, like Rowan
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Impressions of a Young Arab Generation 35
Williams, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, object

that seri-ous Christian thought – informed by Plato and so
convinced that full reality is ideal rather than material --
always placed God beyond space and time, not somewhere Impressions of a Young Arab
above the earth, even as it affirmed His constant interaction Generation
with the universe. See Williams’ dispute with Spong, www. by Abdullah Mulhim
anglicantas.org.au/tasmaniananglican/200310-spong.html, My first stop when traveling back from the U.S to Je-
first published in 1998. rusalem was Amman, Jordan, the most Americanized city
29. An observation along these lines from early in Kro- in the Arab world and the most pro-Western country in
potkin’s career is recorded in George Woodcock and Ivan the Middle East. I stayed with my twenty year old cousin,
Avakumovic, Peter Kropotkin From Prince to Rebel (Black a college student who lives by himself. Like most young
Rose: Montréal, 1990), p. 73. See Kropotkin’s Anarchist Mo- Jordanians, he is generally disinterested in politics; his
rality and Mutual Aid for a full exposition of the thesis. interests range from girls, to cars, to the most popular
30. See, for example, “Researchers trace origin of an new movie or song. However, at night when we sat down
‘altruism gene,’” at www.world-science.net summarizing a to watch TV his first choice was not Showtime or Melody
study con-ducted by Aurora Nedelcu and Richard Michod (the MTV of the Arab world), but instead Al-Jazeera; right
and revealed in Molecular Biology and Evolution, spring then he was more interested and concerned about what
2006. was happening in Gaza, as the Israelis were in the middle
31. Peter Kropotkin, Anarchist Morality. See a copy of their three week bombing campaign. He was worried
on the web at www.dis.org/daver/anarchism/kropotkin/ about how many Palestinians lives had been lost, in how
anmoral.html#VII. The author discusses assassination in many had been injured. We watched bodies being pulled
section vi. Incidentally, this pamphlet is very much about from the rubble, and saw people who had lost their legs
a moral code that hardly differs, in substance, from the arms and eyes talk about the horror they were experiencing.
one advocated by the apostle Paul when he writes of the When I visited my other cousins that night, all of whom all
believer ‘governed’ by love. Or so it seems to me.32 José are in their twenties, the topics of conversation included
García Oliver is the CNT Minister of Justice in the Spanish what is new with school or work, who is dating who, what
Republic in question, from Hugh Thomas, The Span-ish is the new hot style in clothes, and . . . Gaza.
Civil War (Eyre and Spottiswoode: London, 1961) p. 368 Gaza was the topic that started and ended each con-
versation. The next day my cousin drove me to the center
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Impressions of a Young Arab Generation 36
any human beings with morals would react when seeing

the killing and bleeding in Gaza, which no government
in the world would do anything about. He then asked me
if I had joined his group that he formed on Facebook to
boycott the buying or selling of any American products.
More than 1500 users had already joined. It was their only
way to support Palestine, no rallies, no violence, and no
screaming death to America.
My cousins as well as most of the young Arab genera-
tion are the most pro-Western capitalistic people in the
world; they keep in touch with the American fads more
than Americans themselves. They aren’t religious fanatics
or people driven by irrational hatred. They rarely pray and
don’t go to the Mosque, but they do live in the Middle East,
of the city to pick up a taxi to drive me to the borders of and they see the bombing and killings and bloodshed of the
the West Bank so I could continue on to Jerusalem. On Israeli occupation. They are witnesses to the more than
the way there my cousin was telling me about this girl he 1500 Palestinians who have lost their lives to American-
had met at a relief effort for Gaza. I was not interested in supplied Israeli bombs in recent weeks. They have seen
the girl but with the relief campaign. He explained how the more than 6000 individuals injured without any coun-
a warehouse on the airport road was transformed into a try even morally questioning what is happening to these
collection spot for food and clothes that individuals and people. They see their own Arab governments support the
companies were donating for the people of Gaza, and that US and Israel in blaming Palestinians for resisting occu-
he and most of his college friends participated in the relief pation. They see the Egyptian government participate in
effort by volunteering to collect those donations. It was Israel’s aggression by enforcing the cruel blockade of one
a simple job, having nothing to do with money, or getting the poorest, most miserable strips of land on earth.
recognition, or improving a resume. It was their only way The US government had a plan eight years ago after the
to help their Palestinian brothers and sisters. It was not 9-11 atrocity to be more active in Americanizing the Arab
a political statement and no parties or government agen- world, to have more influence on the culture and education
cies were involved in the effort. The students acted like of the Arab generations, in order to make the Arabs love

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Killing for Ideology: A Brief History of US Efforts 37
to Establish a Free-Market Capitalist Economy in Iraq
America. It’s a plan that has worked as far as changing the of which “is expected to be complicated and possibly con-
style and the culture of those young generations, but it did tentious.”1
not change the hate and dislike of Arabs to U.S government The WSJ quotes President Bush as speaking of “a new
policy. The plan forgot one thing: we live in a daily routine Arab charter that champions internal reform, greater po-
of attacks on our rights as human beings. We don’t need litical participation, economic openness and free trade.”2
books, movies, television channels, or media outlets to tell That the Administration developed plans to restructure
us what is happening on the ground. The U.S government the Iraqi economy before the invasion, suggests that the
can keep on saying words and spending money on “Public desire to remake Iraq's economy constituted one of the
Diplomacy” to make the Arab world more pro-Western, but objectives of the war itself. The WSJ notes that for many
changing the music we listen to and the clothes we wear conservatives, Iraq is “the test case for whether the U.S.
won’t change our opinion of the US government. Until can engender American-style free-market capitalism within
the reality in which we live changes, and the bombing and the Arab world.”3
killing of our Arab brothers and sisters ends, we will never
support the US and Israel in their wars of aggression. Privatization, De-regulation, and an
Investor Friendly Tax Regime
The plans included establishing “a comprehensive in-
come tax system consistent with current international
practice.”4 This description of the new tax regime seems
Killing for Ideology: A Brief History of
to have been a euphemism as the New York Times noted
US Efforts to Establish a Free-Market 6 months later that the changes “would immediately make
Capitalist Economy in Iraq Iraq's economy one of the most open to trade and capital
by William Van Wagenen flows in the world, and put it among the lowest taxed in
Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology the world, rich or poor.”5 These new low tax rates for
is wrong every time, everywhere. investors 6
– George W. Bush Additionally, the WSJ reported that many state-owned
On May 1, 2003 just weeks after US forces captured companies in Iraq might be sold through “a broad-based
Baghdad, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) announced that Mass Privatization Program” similar to the one imple-
“the Bush administration has drafted sweeping plans to mented in Russia and other eastern bloc countries after
remake Iraq's economy in the U.S. image,” the execution the fall of the Soviet Union. In contrast to President Bush's

suggestion that such reforms were necessary for a prosper- Juhasz notes: “One of Bremer’s orders denied the Iraqi
ous Iraq, the WSJ expressed caution, noting that “in many government the ability to give preference to Iraqis in the
countries, rapid privatization of state-run enterprises led reconstruction effort. Instead, more than 150 U.S. com-
to sharp disruptions in jobs and services, as well as ram- panies were awarded contracts totaling more than $50
pant corruption.”7 This caution was understated, given billion, more than twice the GDP of Iraq. Halliburton has
that rapid privatization in the former Soviet bloc countries the largest, worth more than $11 billion, while 13 other U.S.
led to increases in poverty by a factor of ten, according to companies are earning more than $1.5 billion each.”13 In a
Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.8 December 2005 letter to the International Monetary Fund
The coming “disruptions in jobs” from privatization (IMF), the Iraqi government noted that “a large share of
were given a jump start in June 2003, when Paul Bremer, bilateral donor support is either not going into the domes-
head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, disbanded the tic economy or is being used primarily to cover security
Iraqi Army, putting 350,000 Iraqi soldiers out of work.9 outlays.”14
Later that fall, Bremer signed legislation locking in the In essence, little of the billions in allotted funds ever
proposed privatization of state-owned industries. Some left the U.S., simply moving from the United States trea-
192 state-owned factories were closed, which, according sury directly to corporate bank accounts, or in other words,
to the World Bank, employed more than 500,000 people from US taxpayer into US corporate hands. In addition
before the war, though those laid off continued to receive a to Iraqi companies being bypassed, Iraqi laborers were
portion of their salaries.10 Bremer also issued an edict pre- not even able to benefit from the “trickle down effect” of
venting the Iraqi Central Bank from funding state-owned reconstruction, as most of the few jobs that were created
enterprises.11 When in 2007, a Defense Department offi- went to poor laborers coming to Iraq from South Asia, since
cial tried to reopen Iraqi state-owned factories to restore many US companies did not trust Iraqis to work for them
some of the lost jobs, a colleague at the US embassy in for security reasons. Reconstruction also accomplished
Baghdad called him a “Stalinist,” while another told him little in terms of providing services, as Iraqis continue to
that if he rehabilitated factories, Iraqis “are going to use suffer from severe shortages of electricity, clean drinking
those machines to make more complicated weapons to kill water, and any semblance of adequate health care.
our troops with.”12 As a result of all these factors, unemployment in Iraq
At the same time, US government directed reconstruc- remained high. The U.S. Agency for International Devel-
tion did little to alleviate the mass unemployment initiated opment estimated that by 2007 “nearly half of Iraqis are
by Bremer. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Antonio unemployed or work fewer than 15 hours a week.”15

Privatization of Iraq’s State Oil Industry ernment signed a standby agreement with the IMF on
When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein December 23, 2005. This standby agreement stressed “the
had amassed a debt of some 38 billion dollars to various need to press ahead with structural fiscal reforms. These
creditor governments belonging to the Paris Club, includ- include, most urgently, measures to enhance the efficiency
ing the US and UK (in addition to debts owed to non-Paris and transparency of public financial management, the move
club nations such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia). All of the forward toward the commercialization of oil-related state
countries, including the United States, that gave loans to the enterprises, and the drafting of a new petroleum law.”18
Iraqi regime did so for bad faith political reasons, namely In other words, in order to have some 31.1 billion dollars of
to aid Saddam in his war of aggression against Iran during debt canceled, the Iraqi government would have to priva-
the 1980's. The loans were not given with the permission tize its oil industry. Leaving no doubt as to who would ben-
of, nor the money used for the benefit of, the Iraqi people. efit from the privatization of Iraqi oil, the U.S.-appointed
In 2004, the Paris club used this debt as leverage to try to interim Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mehdi explained in
force the new US-backed Iraqi government to privatize its August 2005 that the new oil law would be “very promis-
oil industry, which Saddam had nationalized in the 1970's ing to the American investors and to American enterprise,
to the great benefit of Iraqi society. In November 2004, the certainly to oil companies.”19
Paris club agreed to cancel, over the course of three years, The draft oil law proposes that privatization of Iraq’s
80% of the 38.9 billion dollar debt owed it by the govern- oil industry would entail the Iraqi Government signing
ment of Iraq, on condition that “a standard IMF programme production-sharing agreements (PSA’s) with international
is approved” and implemented.16 oil companies to rehabilitate Iraq’s damaged oil infrastruc-
Conditioning Iraq's debt relief upon completion of IMF ture. PSA’s guarantee foreign companies a percentage of
programs, was not done out of generosity. Instead, the Paris the country’s oil revenue until operating costs are recouped,
Club nations offered debt relief to the Iraqi government in after which the foreign companies would receive a percent-
order to deepen their influence with, and leverage over, the age of oil profits. Opposition to PSA’s stems from the view
Iraqi government, hence the condition that debt relief be that they would limit Iraq’s economic sovereignty and give
contingent upon the implementation of the IMF program. foreign companies a much higher share of profits from
As Anna Gelpern of Rutgers Law School has noted, in such developing Iraqi oil than they would receive by signing
cases “Debt relief does not end, but perpetuates the debtor- basic fee-based service contracts that do not guarantee a
creditor relationship and increases creditor control.”17 percentage of revenue and profits. Such fee-based service
In order to satisfy Paris Club demands, the Iraqi gov- contracts are customary for the major oil producing na-

tions in the Middle East, who like Iraq have large easily ment in the hands of IOC’s [International Oil Companies]
exploitable oil reserves and a nationalized oil industry.20 on the basis of the PSA model. They called for Iraq’s with-
The Iraqi government, currently in a weak bargaining po- drawal from OPEC and an open oil production policy to
sition while under occupation, is being pressed to sign rival Saudi Arabia and break the OPEC cartel.
PSA’s committing them to these unfavorable terms for 30 Privatization, however, runs against the grain of the
years. Reuters reports that such PSA’s could deprive the great majority of the oil technocrats and the Iraqi nation.
Iraqi government of up to $194 billion in oil revenue over A strong state-owned national oil industry and unified cen-
30 years.21 tral plan, policy and resource management, with a liberal
Recognizing the downsides to privatization, many attitude towards cooperation with the regions and gover-
Iraqis have vocally opposed the new draft oil law and norates, have become the unchallenged principles of the
have worked to oppose its enactment. In early 2007, Time overwhelming majority of Iraqi oil technocrats.24
Magazine quoted Kamil Mahdi, an Iraqi and senior lec- Despite this opposition, the cabinet of the US and Ira-
turer in Middle East economics at the University of Ex- nian-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki complied
eter in Britain, who stated that, “This draft is totally out with US wishes and approved the draft of the new oil law
of synch with any notion of the interests of Iraq.”22 Time in February 2007.25 The draft was then sent to the Iraqi
also quoted Hassan Jum'ah Awwad Al-Asadi, the head of parliament for passage, where, after several revisions, the
Iraq's Federation of Oil Unions, the largest union group, third draft was rejected in October 2008.26 The struggle
as saying, “We want a new, different law, which will be in to reject the draft oil law is still ongoing. Former Iraqi oil
the interests of Iraqis. . . We strongly warn all the foreign minister, Thamir Ghadhban, stated in December 2008 that
companies and foreign capital in the form of American he expects the fourth draft of the law to be passed in the
companies against coming into our lands under the guise spring of 2009. 27
of production-sharing agreements.”23 In June 2007, Iraqi
oil expert Tariq Shafiq presented a paper at the Centre Ending Food Rations
for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC In addition to privatizing Iraq's state oil industry, the
which stated that the majority of Iraq’s oil technocrats op- December 2005 IMF program for Iraq included “lay[ing]
posed the new draft oil law as well: the groundwork for the reform of the social safety net and
The policy of the neo-conservative politicians prior to- the public distribution system.”28 Consequently, in early
and post- the invasion of Iraq has been the privatisation of 2006 the Iraqi government made cuts to the food ration
Iraq’s oil industry leaving future exploration and develop- program established by Saddam Hussein during the 1990's,

when poverty in Iraq became widespread as the country Particularly cruel is the fact that the Bush adminis-
suffered under a US-UK led United Nations embargo.29 tration was trying to make these changes at a time when
For some in the Bush Administration, rations reduc- Iraq was (and still is) in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.
tions were not enough however. In August 2006, Commerce Oxfam reported in July 2007 that:
Secretary Carlos Gutierrez drafted a document called “Sec- Forty-three per cent of Iraqis suffer from ‘absolute pov-
retary Gutierrez's Five Priority Areas for Economic Reform erty’. According to some estimates, over half the population
in Iraq,” which, the Washington Post reports, “called for are now without work. Children are hit the hardest by the
the United States to pressure Iraq's government to cease decline in living standards. Child malnutrition rates have
providing people with monthly food rations, which more risen from 19 per cent before the US-led invasion in 2003 to
than half of Iraq's population relies on for sustenance.”30 28 per cent now. The situation is particularly hard for fami-
Officials in the US embassy in Iraq's economic section lies driven from their homes by violence. The two million
vigorously opposed the plan, believing “that dismantling it internally displaced people (IDPs) have no incomes to rely
as Commerce was proposing could spark riots that might on and are running out of coping mechanisms. In 2006, 32
topple the Iraqi government.”31 Gutierrez was revisiting per cent of IDPs had no access to PDS food rations, while
an idea initially proposed by Paul Bremer, who, according 51 per cent reported receiving food rations only sometimes.
to the Post, felt that the ration system “embodied socialism The number of Iraqis without access to adequate water
at its worst, . . . promoted corruption, wasted government supplies has risen from 50 per cent to 70 per cent since
money, discouraged domestic agriculture and interfered 2003, while 80 per cent lack effective sanitation.34
with the CPA's plans to promote capitalism.”32 Instead of seeking radical changes to the ration system,
In addition to resisting pressure from the Commerce policy makers with concern for Iraq's poor would be at-
Department, the embassy's economic section managed to tempting to increase rations and extend access to the food
fight off similar a similar attack on the ration system in the ration system for the internally displaced Iraqis who have
fall of 2006 “from the embassy's Joint Strategic Planning no way to support themselves, at least until the war and
and Assessment Office, headed by a Rand Corp. analyst on accompanying humanitarian crisis ends. For this reason,
contract with the embassy, [which] created its own plan to Abdul Hadi al-Hamiri, Iraq's deputy trade minister, noted
restructure the ration system. It was even more aggressive that, “[The food ration system] needs to be changed, but
than Commerce's. It called for eliminating the rations in change has to be done after the security situation stabi-
38 weeks.”33 lizes.”35

Killing for a Discredited Ideology ment intervention and reduced social spending, are the
In summary, the economic changes the US has both best ways to promote economic growth. “Economic reform”
made, or attempted to make in Iraq, closely follow the pre- along Washington Consensus lines has led to increased
scriptions of the “Washington Consensus,” a free-market poverty, unemployment and food insecurity for millions
economic ideology, which holds that de-regulation, unre- of Iraqis, and may lead to losing billions in oil revenue to
strained capital flows, privatization, and minimal govern- Western oil companies. These changes were being vigor-
ously pushed by the Bush administration in Iraq despite
the fact that these same policies had previously led to
economic crises in Argentina, Southeast Asia, Russia, and
Chile.36 Joseph Stiglitz notes that by the turn of the mil-
lennium, Washington Consensus ideology had been largely
discredited, and that a post-Washington Consensus con-
sensus was already emerging.37
In President Bush’s farewell speech, just days before
leaving office, he stated, “. . .good and evil are present in
this world and between the two, there can be no compro-
mise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is
wrong every time, everywhere.”38 This comment about
America’s Islamist enemies was highly ironic, given that
the Bush Administration killed many innocent people to
make Iraq “the test case for whether the U.S. can engender
The Savior came. With trem- American-style free-market capitalism within the Arab
bling lips He counted Europe’s world.” Though killing for free-market capitalism may
battleships. “Yet millions lack seem like “liberation” to some, or “spreading freedom” to
their daily bread. So much for others, for me the Bush Administrations’ actions in Iraq
Calvary!” he said. constitute killing for an ideology. What’s more, if Bush is
—Norman Gale right, it’s even more than that, its murder.
The Second Coming

Republic of Iraq agree on debt relief,” November 21, 2004,
accessed online at: http://www.clubdeparis.org/sections/
1. “Bush Officials Devise a Broad Plan For Free-Market services/communiques/irak6017/viewLanguage/en. The
Economy in Iraq,” Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2003. 19 Paris Club permanent members are governments with
2. WSJ, May 1, 2003. large claims on various other governments throughout the
3. WSJ, May 1, 2003. world.
4. WSJ, May 1, 2003. 17. “Odious, Not Debt,” Law and Contemporary Prob-
5. “Economic Scene; The economic plan for Iraq seems lems, Volume 70, number 4, Autumn 2007, pg. 123, Anna
long on ideology, short on common sense,” New York Gelpern, Rutgers University School of Law, copyright 2007,
Times, Oct 2, 2003. accessed online at: http://law.duke.edu/journals/lcp.
6. WSJ, May 1, 2003. 18. “Iraq: Request for Stand-By Arrangement—Staff
7. WSJ, May 1, 2003. Report; Staff Supplement; Press Release on the Executive
8. Stiglitz, Joseph. “Making Globalization Work,” WW Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Direc-
Norton, 2006, pg. 39. tor for Iraq.” International Monetary Fund, January 2006,
9. “The Conflict in Iraq: Winning the Peace; Debate pg. 18. Accessed online at https://www.imf.org/external/
Lingering on Decision To Dissolve the Iraqi Military,” NYT, pubs/ft/scr/2006/cr0615.pdf
Oct. 21, 2004. 19. Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2005.
10. “Defense Skirts State in Reviving Iraqi Industry,” 20. “Blood and Oil: How the West will profit from Iraq’s
Washington Post, May 14, 2007. most precious commodity,” The Independent (UK), January
11. Washington Post, May 14, 2007. 7, 2007. Accessed online at http://www.independent.co.uk/
12. Washington Post, May 14, 2007. news/world/middle-east/blood-and-oil-how-the-west-
13. “Bush's Economic Invasion of Iraq,” Los Angeles will-profit-from-iraqs-most-precious-commodity-431119.
Times, Aug 14, 2005. html
14. “Iraq: Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic 21. “Big Oil has Crude Designs on Iraq Wealth-Report,”
and Financial Policies and Technical Memorandum of Un- Reuters, November 22, 2005. For the full text of the re-
derstanding,” December 6, 2005, accessed online at: http:// port cited by Reuters, see “Crude Designs: The Rip-Off
www.imf.org/external/np/loi/2005/irq/120605.pdf. of Iraq’s Oil Wealth,” Researched and written by Greg
15. Washington Post, May 14, 2007. Muttitt of PLATFORM www.carbonweb.org. Accessed
16. Paris Club press release, “The Paris Club and the online at http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2005/
crudedesigns.pdf
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22. Time Magazine, February 28, 2007. rations, IRIN News, UN Office for the Coordination of
23. “Troubles for the Iraq Oil Deal,” Time Magazine, Humanitarian Affairs April 2, 2006
February 28, 2007. Accessed online at http://www.time. 30. “Agencies Tangle on Efforts to Help Iraq, Staffers
com/time/world/article/0,8599,1594388,00.html Say Spats Displace Priorities,” Washington Post, March
24. “Iraq Petroleum Law Re-visited: A Paper Presented 11, 2007.
at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies,” by 31. Washington Post, March 11, 2007.
Tariq Shafiq, Director Petrolog & Associates, June 12, 2007. 32. Washington Post, March 11, 2007.
Accessed online at: http://www.iraqog.com/oillaw/shafiq2. 33. Washington Post, March 11, 2007. To their credit,
htm many of those who have attempted to dismantle the Iraqi
25. “Iraqi Cabinet Endorses Draft Oil Law,” Reuters, Feb- food rations regime suggest giving cash payments to Iraq's
ruary 27, 2007. Accessed online at: http://www.arabianbusi- poor as a replacement. Giving aid only to those who need
ness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article& it, rather than all Iraqis makes sense. Nevertheless, there
id=8558:iraq-cabinet-endorses-draft-oil-law&Itemid=72 are several reasons why making such radical changes now
26. “Iraq Parliament Committee Rejects New Draft would likely have grave effects for many Iraqis, which is
Oil Law,” Dow Jones News Wires, October 27, 2008. Ac- why the economic section of the US embassy and the US
cessed online at: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article. military blocked Bremer’s proposal. The first is that most of
asp?a_id=68356 Iraq’s wealthy have left the country, as they had the means
27. “Iraq’s Oil Law to be Enacted by 2009,” Press TV, to travel and live comfortably in Syria or Jordan, meaning
December 10, 2008. Accessed online at: http://www.presstv. that the number of wealthy Iraqis benefiting from the ra-
ir/Detail.aspx?id=78020&sectionid=3510213 tions unjustly is small. Secondly, if the ration system were
28. “Iraq: Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic dismantled, there is no guarantee that a comparable system
and Financial Policies and Technical Memorandum of would effectively be implemented to take its place. Given
Understanding, December 6, 2005. The following item is a the US's failure to accomplish meaningful reconstruction,
Letter of Intent of the government of Iraq, which describes provide basic services, clean drinking water, electricity, etc,
the policies that Iraq intends to implement in the con- it is unlikely that the US would be able to implement a cash
text of its request for financial support from the IMF,” ac- payments system to the poor in a timely or efficient way,
cessed online at http://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/2005/ and that would not be plagued by the corruption which has
irq/120605.pdf. cursed much of the occupation authority. Trying to make
29. Iraq: Food prices rise after reduction of monthly such a transition in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Obama’s Election: Genuine Revolution or Successful Branding Campaign? 45
would, well, catastrophic. advertising stare and reserve a seat right next to the New
34. Oxfam International, “Rising to the humanitarian York Times and a bevy of other “progressive” magazines
challenge in Iraq,” Briefing Paper, July 2007 accessed on- that wanted to celebrate the reality they created.
line at http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/briefingpapers/ Don’t believe me? Here is the prompt Adbusters sent
bp105_humanitarian_challenge_in_iraq_0707) out to all their meme warriors in holy expectation of the
35. Washington Post, March 11, 2007. upcoming coronation (an event that, beyond being as tran-
36. For specifics see, “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of scendentally historical as we’ve been promised, will also
Disaster Capitalism,” by Naomi Klein. Henry Holt and usher in a whole new generation):
Company, 2007. Meme warriors, cultural creatives and Generation O:
37. Stiglitz, Joseph. “Making Globalization Work,” WW The outpouring of euphoria around the globe following
Norton, 2006, pg. 17. Barack Obama's victory has raised expectations. Like the
38. “Bush’s Farewell Speech: This is a moment of pride president-elect, we (and you) have been calling for change
and hope.” CNN.com, January 16, 2009. Accessed online at for eight long years. On November 4th we got it, a genuine,
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/15/bush.speech. bloodless revolution. The question now is: will it amount to
text/index.html anything?
39. WSJ, May 1, 2003. Obama's campaign benefited hugely from enlisting young
voters in the cause. Obama told them that the post-baby
boomer era had begun. He challenged their cynicism and
spoke to them through their own media: through Facebook,
through Twitter. They overwhelmingly gave him their sup-
Obama’s Election: Genuine Revolution port at the polls. And they won. They won big. Maybe now
or Successful Branding Campaign? Generation O will finally drop the hipster pose and become
by Ashley Sanders a force to change the world.
It’s inauguration time, and you know what that means: For the next issue of Adbusters we want your thoughts
last chance to board the bandwagon headed toward happy and opinions on whether you think Generation O has revo-
delusion. This time around, the Dems have even saved lutionary potential.
some space for erstwhile opponents—people who can usu- So I responded (what pissed-off, media-abused leftist
ally keep a cool head amidst all the media hoopla. From wouldn’t?) with my thoughts on the so-called Generation
the looks of it, Adbusters saw fit to drop their bionic anti- O.
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There was something a little less than comforting about that lead us into it, and the duplicity of waging terrorism
the prompt Adbusters used to solicit our thoughts on the to fight a wrongly-labeled threat); Afghanistan, which will
revolutionary potential of Generation O. In their solicita- endure a surge that ensures more bloody wedding parties
tion, Adbusters gave a series of givens before asking their and the notion that it is the rightful recipient of a ‘good’
readers to answer for the undecided: It was incontrovert- war; Pakistan, Syria, and Iran, who by virtue of simply fol-
ible that Obama had contributed to an “outpouring of eu- lowing the United State’s lead in nuclear weaponry, border
phoria across the globe,” that he had been extending the armament, and realpolitik self-interest, have earned only
mission of Adbusters by “calling for change,” and that his Obama’s wrath and saber-rattling; Venezuela and Bolivia,
election amounted to a “genuine, bloodless revolution.” All whose very real revolutions will continue to be interpreted
that was decided. Agreed upon. Now the only question left through the lens of fundamentalist free-marketeers who
was whether Generation O would “drop its hipster pose” use Obama as their willing mouthpiece to equate utterly
long enough to carry the revolution forward. financial notions of freedom-for-some with the expansive
Adbusters’ givens beg far more questions than their freedoms of human rights; the third world in general, which
actual question does, and while the actual question is not will carry the same old NAFTA-esque burdens on its back;
whether Obama will bring change, but whether the younger immigrants wanting to escape that selfsame NAFTA, who
generation will carry out that change, the attitudes Ad- will encounter border walls and increased border police;
busters revealed in their intro to the question are the same poor and middle class communities, who will pay dearly for
attitudes that will keep Generation O from possessing or the almost unquestioned corporatism and Wall Street influ-
exercising true revolutionary potential. ence that—despite flowery phrases—controlled Obama’s
First things first: global euphoria. It is unclear whether campaign; the sick, who will require more and more band-
Adbusters was using an exaggerated expression to con- aid tax dollars to get terrible care: in short, an overwhelm-
vey a point or whether their maps are wrong, since—last ing mass of people whose stories have been silenced for
I checked—there are large swaths of the globe that have so long that they are no longer even factored into a world
no reason to rejoice over an Obama presidency: Palestine, that even progressive magazines claim is euphoric with
which will continue to live under an occupation and have Obama-mania.
their resistance branded as terrorism; Iraq, which will see But what about reality? After shrieking that Barack
the same amount of bloodshed and hypocrisy behind a Obama is against war, for comprehensive healthcare, against
thin, tactical critique of certain specific aspects of the war NAFTA, and funded by small donations—and after I tell
(instead of an urgent critique of war in general, the forces you wearily to check your facts and get back to me—you

will surely wage one final protest and insist that the major- the root of a problem or radically includes or excludes a
ity of the world really was rejoicing after, and that this kind new or old idea. What we got from Obama was not a revo-
of mass joy amounts to nothing short of a revolution—a lution, as even a cursory study of his own centrist, Ameri-
promise of great changes from Generation O. I admit openly can-myth-heavy rhetoric would attest. What we got from
that even many of the people from the regions I just listed Obama was just what Adbusters (glowingly) said we got: a
were ecstatic. But that is part of my point: that the way President who used technology to speak to us in a language
that people perceived Barack Obama (not to mention why we understood. What we got wasn’t a new generation or a
they were convinced to perceive him this way) is more refurbished democratic era. What we got was the logical
indicative of their lack of revolutionary potential than conclusion of a corporatist takeover of democracy: a brand
anything else. Case in point: revolution that took the
the word revolution itself. images of rebellion, cored
Just because George Bush them out, and resold them
didn’t force a third term, as image. What we got was
and just because one of the decoy democracy—a series
six billion people who isn’t of jingles, trademarks, and
George Bush will be presi- images that kept us from the
dent this January, doesn’t reality of business as usual.
mean that we witnessed a Barack Obama is not a
revolution. In fact, the word departure from the corpo-
revolution is bandied around so freely these days that it ratism of Bush; he is the fulfillment of it. If Bush fulfilled Or-
could now unapologetically apply to switching from Froot well’s worst predictions, Obama is busy fulfilling Huxley’s
Loops to Cheerios. Cereal imagery aside, the analogy is a more candied but just as ominous predictions of a world
good one: Should we eat the outright terrible stuff mar- so controlled by false pleasure and feel-good propaganda
keted to us by one major conglomerate, or should we eat that people no longer know that there are Others at all.
the pretend-it’s-good-for-you stuff brought to us by an- Adbusters should know better than anybody that the
other major conglomerate? Sometimes the sheer choice is triumph of the corporate age is to pair a series of unlike
so damn exciting we forget that we should be free to eat things together to give potential customers an impression
something besides bullshit altogether. that is stronger than fact—in other words, to create brand
A real revolution turns things upside down; it gets at loyalty. Marketers know that blatant salesmanship will

only alert people to the fact that they are being conned, something, they won’t be suspicious buyers. Democracy,
and so their goal is not to argue but to create a sense in to most, appears as a non-commodity market. Steeped in
someone over time: a sense that Pepsi is better than Coke, the traditions of political debate, high school civics, and a
a sense that you shouldn’t be caught dead in anything but complete Founding Father myth set, they believe that they
skinny jeans. These senses are far more commanding then are engaging in a battle of ideas in which the best person
anything other tactic in controlling people’s behavior. still wins.
Anyone with an intro-level rhetoric class under their But the actual election process looks a damn sight more
belt laughs when ads are used against them this way. As an like a marketing orgy than a Lincoln-Douglas debate; by
example, Exxon just launched an unbeatably ironic green- the end of last election cycle, the two major candidates
washing campaign on the DC subway. In the ads, respect- had spent close to two billion dollars to convince people
able people smile out at you with the phrase “I will leave to vote for them. A smart person might ask: What kind of
my car at home more” underneath. But the pretty pictures person needs a billion dollars to convince me to vote in
hardly hide what is actually going on: a major corporation, my own interest? Answer: A person who does not have
under pressure from a growing public awareness about your interest in mind. The sheer fact that politicians now
global warming and peak oil, is using the language of its need unimaginable amounts of money and a whole legion
detractors to get people to use more oil by distracting of callow reporters to ‘win’ an election is a sure sign that
them with piecemeal reform—to convince them that small democracy has moved into its final phase: fascist feel-good
actions can offset systematic pollution. In other words, PR. Politicians are no longer selling a substantive set of
they are manipulating the good intentions of would-be platforms (if they ever were); they are, to borrow Naomi
environmentalists in order to keep doing exactly what they Klein’s idea, abandoning actual production of ideas to pour
have always done. More insultingly, they are transferring billions of dollars into making a brand.
the responsibility for the problem they created onto the Don’t believe it? My friend Jason, a graphic designer,
victims, a classic case of shunting corporate responsibility told me that he had endured endless discussions in and out
off the irresponsible and onto the consumer. of school about the genius of Obama’s logo strategy. “It’s so
These ads probably won’t work, largely because people clean,” his friends said, “so clean and hopeful.” And that’s
know they are being sold something and are looking out when Jason hit the nail on the head: “To these people, the
for corporate smoke-and-mirror tricks. But people are difference between Obama and McCain is the difference
less wary if they think they are operating in a non-com- between a Mac and a PC.” In a democracy where press has
modity system—if they don’t think they are being sold been traded for publicity, politics for punditry, and report-

ing for reality creation, graphic design is both medium and revolutionary is far more indicative of their susceptibility
analogy: art once-removed, the uncomfortable gray land to brands than their revolutionary potential. Generation
between ideas and advertising. O is just as unlikely as the hipster generation to affect real
Adbusters was right, but in an ominous way: Obama change because they are willing, if unwitting, participants
won by speaking to the rising generation in their own in the same corporate project: aesthetic rebellion. True,
language, a language so pervasive and invisible that most Generation O is much more earnest, much more willing
don’t even know they are fluent in it. He spoke to them in to work. And they will work, and work hard. But unless
the language of branding, taking powerful feel-good words they are willing to break through the brand floor and find
from the Sixties—words like ‘grassroots’ and ‘movement’— the roots of problems underneath—until they are willing
and updating them for the corporate era. An Obama ‘grass- to look for substance rather than senses—then they will
roots movement’ was neither grassroots nor movement but, accept the image of change rather than securing the real
rather, a highly orchestrated, top-down spectacle that got thing. It is far more dangerous to think you are doing good
people to do exactly what they were supposed to by making when you are actually complicit than it is to be apathetic.
them think it was their idea to do so. The word change— In the latter, there is no perception but self-absorption;
already tired from years of political servitude—also got a in the former scenario, the bad guys win by getting their
marketing makeover. Detached from any substance or ques- enemies’ perceptions to work for them.
tions of policy, ‘change’ was Obama’s ultimate brand: a hazy But if aesthetic rebellion doesn’t neuter the next revo-
feeling that Obama (despite all evidence to the contrary) lution, then the professionalization of rebellion surely will.
was the peace candidate, the environmental candidate, There is branding, yes, and PR. But if that doesn’t work,
the Black candidate, the people’s candidate. The whole the corporations have one more powerful tool on their
production borrowed ideas that were actually dangerous side, one that operates on the same principles of co-opting
to Wall Street, gutted them of danger, and resold them as movements and shunting responsibility. I’d call it the non-
ideas that were dangerous to Wall Street. It used spectacle profit industrial complex: a complete union between the
to create the illusion that an infinity of similar options was interests of major corporations and the technocratic do-
the same thing as a meaningful choice, as real change or gooder mentality of Generation O. Instead of the Protestant
authenticity. It was the triumph of ideology: getting people work ethic, the next generation will suffer the ripple of the
to vote against themselves in the name of themselves. corporate work ethic, a model of ‘effective’ organizing that
The fact that enough people—particularly those in the is so powerful that it has tainted the very structures that
rising generation—were persuaded to perceive Obama as a criticize it.

Generation O is a far cry from the radicalism of previ- and edits. They speak of curbing excesses rather than ad-
ous generations. If the Sixties cried revolution, the Seven- mitting that the system is by its nature excessive.
ties faced disillusion, the Eighties slumped into unironic This is a government that will please the Patagonia-
greed and the Nineties went nevermind, the 21st century wearing, hybrid-driving, well-read early-thirties couple
college kid is the model for resume reform: a perfectly whose education is not a source for radical action but a
manicured series of internships at powerful think tanks badge of prestige. Similarly, the non-profitization of for-
or non-profits that teach him or her to think in the narrow profit corporatism will beget an ethic that trades prestige
language of reports and impact statements rather than the for good marks, a system in which learning does not radi-
robust language of the radical. These internships combine calize or politicize but professionalize.
the respectability of the resume with the neo-bohemian And so I have no doubt that Generation O will make
desire for a ‘meaningful’ job. Rather than challenge corpo- a more efficient car, curb the excesses of the Orwellian
rate power or entrenched interests, these kids will solve for state, and start a slew of think-tanks that will solve narrow
narrow, piecemeal problems; rather than linking arms with problems narrowly. There will be reforms. But at what cost?
groups in other fields to bring the whole operation to a stop, At the cost of talking about the car itself and what it rep-
these kids will work myopically for their own organization, resents, at the expense of Simone de Beauvoir’s reminder
eschewing other groups that might threaten the success of that a State that speaks of excesses is complicit in the State
their own; rather than pointed social commentary, these as excess; at the expense of the do-tanks of yesteryear, in
kids will make bureaucratic suggestions. The corporations, which hippies who were not attached to the prestige and
for their part, will be delighted that there are people who professionalism of the organization had both the time and
are forced to use corporate-funded grants to fight the ex- the requisite guts to actually disrupt something big. Way-
cesses of corporate power; they will be glad for a do-gooder lon Jennings got revolution right when he said: “We just
smokescreen to ensconce themselves behind. couldn’t do things the way they were set up.” Generation
There is no better symbol for the rise of the technocrats O says: “Set it up and I’ll do it.”
than Obama’s own organizational structure. Obama openly Brand technocracy comes at a real cost. It isn’t just that
admits to stocking his administrative cabinets with self- it lets corporate power grow and persist. It is a matter of
confessed eggheads, memo-writers and other members of letting dangerous myths grow and persist: the myth of the
the non-profit elite. His staff is not interested in rebellion, American dream, the myth of the founding, the myth of the
they are interested in tedious refinement of old-guard ideas; market, the myth of finance as freedom—all the myths that
they do not care for philosophy or ethics, but technology keep us from recognizing our profound hypocrisy, all the

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 The Other Cost Of The Holocaust 51
myths that keep the concept of nation alive and well, all to recognize the State of Israel. This led to a comfortable
the myths that say we must harm to survive, and, most im- majority support of the State of Israel at the UN vote au-
portantly, all the myths that leave whole groups of people thorizing the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 (the
looking irrational and storyless while our great delusional states of the region, the ones to be most affected by the
story marches on in self-seeming rationalism. vote, voted against it with passion, but their vote did not
count for more than the vote of any of the distant states
who were subject to political pressure by Israel’s influential
supporters). The UN’s acceptance, an official recognition
of the State of Israel, may be likened to a gift from Europe,
The Other Cost Of The Holocaust a way of saying Europe is so terribly sorry over that whole
by Tovah Ben David Holocaust thing; a gift the cost of which the Palestinian
Those who died in the Holocaust had to pay the ulti- Arabs are paying in installments to this very day. Though
mate price. There is no heavier cost than losing one’s pos- the UN vote and the plight of Europe’s Jews after WWII
sessions, one’s home, one’s life, one’s entire family, one’s are often remembered, the 750,000 Palestinians whom the
faith in humanity. pre-state Zionist militias ethnically cleansed from their
The Palestinian Arabs have also lost possessions, homes, lands to create the state of Israel are not.
lives, entire families, and faith in humanity, as a result of May the cry of those who have had to pay a painful
the Holocaust’s aftermath. The simple, yet under-asked price for not being European or Jewish reach the ears of
question - Why is it that the Palestinians living on their land those who can help ease their pain.
have had to pay the price for something that Europeans did Being a Jew and an Israeli by birth, my own cry, though
to Jews in Europe? - has yet to produce a simple answer. less intense, points at yet another cost of the Holocaust,
It always appears to be an impossible task to explain the namely, the manner in which Israel manipulates the use of
logic of: A had caused harm to B, and yet C has to pay for the term anti-Semitism to shield itself from being subject
it. If there is an answer, it is likely an inconvenient one, to moral criticism.
having to do with sheer Euro-centric notions. The term, anti-Semite, which used to serve as the defini-
Following the Holocaust, it was much easier for Jewish tion for Europeans who hated and persecuted Jews simply
Zionist politicians, who were personally close to significant because they were Jews, has somehow spun and expanded
leaders in the US and the UK, to make the case that there to also include anyone who criticizes the State of Israel in
is an urgent and justified need for the world community any shape or form. How did this happen?

Being that the Holocaust was the unthinkable pinnacle periods of time. The Archbishop of Cologne commented:
of all hatred and persecution of Jews, and being that its “such a thing one does to animals, not to human beings.” He
condemnation is close to universal, the Zionist leaders have further said that the wall brought back bad memories from
found it tempting to capitalize on the general agreement Germany’s past: “for me it is a nightmare... I never thought
concerning the Holocaust to gain support for its ambiva- that in my lifetime I would see such a wall again. Just as
lently held bid for a state for Jews at the expense of the they have brought down the Berlin Wall, they shall bring
land’s current dwellers. Since then, labeling the critics of down this one.” Upon witnessing the living conditions in
the Israeli government as anti-Semites has evolved into a Ramallah, another Bishop compared the sights from the
bona fide profession in Israel under the title of Hasbara, Holocaust Museum with those of Ramallah: “In the morning
which may be translated into the grammatically incorrect
“explanation-ing.” This is the art performed by Israeli poli-
ticians and spokespersons when they set out to explain
and justify Israel’s human rights abuses to the world and
to itself. In Israel, an anti-Semite is considered such pure
evil, that there is no need to further consider what the anti-
Semite is trying to say, because it is based on pure hatred,
irrational hatred, just like Hitler’s words were. By deeming
their critics anti-Semites, the Israelis dismiss claims of their
own immorality, and thus, refute outside opinion as well
as suppress self-reflection.
In March 2007 a delegation of 27 bishops who head
the Catholic Church in Germany visited the “Holy Land.”
Aside from visiting the sites holy to Christianity, they also
went touring in Israel and the Palestinian territories. On
one day, they went to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
Seattle, WA / December 2009 by Cory Bushman
in Jerusalem in the morning, and then later that day they
continued to Ramallah and witnessed the wall that sur- we saw in Yad Vashem the pictures of the inhumane War-
rounds East Jerusalem as well as the barricades and the saw Ghetto, and then in the evening we go to the Ramallah
checkpoints where Palestinians are often detained for long Ghetto... Israel surely has the right to exist, but such a right

cannot be manifested so brutally.” Such were the quotes Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics in Tehran,
that led to the following headline inside Israel’s premier made a call to end the Zionist project that has over the last
newspaper, Yedioth Aharonoth, March 6th, 2007: “The 60 years created only violence and horrors. In an answer to
Heads of the German Catholic Church Shock in a Severe a question by the Israeli press, Dr. Larijani said: “We have
Anti-Semitic Attack.” Decide for yourselves if comments no problem with Israel - we have a stance. We think that
which express a concern for the well-being of other hu- Israel embodies a plan to create a Jewish state at the heart
man beings deserve to be tagged as severely anti-Semitic of the Muslim world, and this Zionist plan has absolutely
and shocking; decide for yourselves whether this shows a failed and only brought about terrible damages.” Do you
manipulative effort to abuse the term anti-Semitism. think that there is anything inherently anti-Jewish in his
These days, Israel’s Hasbara efforts focus on depicting words? Eldad Beck, the same Yedioth Aharonoth reporter
the Iranians as mad anti-Semites who deny the Holocaust, who brought us the headline above, seems to have thought
when in truth, the Iranian leadership is merely asking for a so, and on June 26th, 2008, he gave this article the following
non-biased study of the Holocaust free of political manipu- headline: “An Iranian Anti-Semitic Performance Funded
lations set to justify the State of Israel. The Israeli method by the German Government.” One may find it hard to find
of treating the Holocaust as means to an end, presenting a more provocative and warmongering spin of what took
Israel as the necessary savior of world Jewry, rather than place.
questioning Zionism’s contribution to the strong dislike The Israeli insistence on labeling the Iranian leader-
of Jews in the Middle East, is far from being an honest ship as evil and anti-Semitic is designed to block any real
examination of history. consideration of the Iranian suggestion to replace the State
Furthermore, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ah- of Israel, a democracy if you are a Jew, with an even more
madenijad, is often compared to Hitler despite the fact democratic state offering equal rights to all its citizens,
that during his tenure an estimated 25,000 Iranian Jews whether Arab, Christian, Jew or anything else. They suggest
enjoy their living conditions in Iran to an extent that they creating as state that would offer the rightful opportunity
dismissed Israeli attempts to lure them to Israel along with of governance to the Palestinian Arab majority in the land
an incentive of $10,000 each. 1 that is being caged in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
In a conference in Germany on the effectiveness of (not to mention, the refugees and exiles). In order to shut
anti-missile defenses, an Iranian who previously served as the mouths of those who are bold enough to express their
deputy to the minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mohammad opinion on what is right and wrong in the Middle East, the
Larijani, and who is the current Director of the Institute for Israelis have adopted and almost perfected the accusation

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 We Believe In Saving Lives, Not Face 54
of Anti-Semitism. Israel does not want to recognize the the oppressed Palestinians of the Gaza Strip by answer-
common sense in what its critics are saying, they would ing their basic needs for water and electricity. Instead,
much rather vilify them. While Iran talks of putting an your $2,550,000,000 becomes shopping money for Israel’s
end to the Zionist state along with its ideology and modus weapons of war to negate the cries of the occupied and
operandi, for the benefit of those who have unjustifiably dispossessed, and to continue their military dominance in
had to suffer from it, Israel would rather perceive such talk the Middle East. Of course, the Israelis would say the Aid
as clear expression of Jewish hatred and intention to mas- is for weapons of defense against anti-Semites.
sacre Jews. Despite Israel’s agenda, it must be understood I would suggest you should email your Senators and
that there is a significant difference between a call to put Representatives asking them not to allow this abuse of
an end to the Jewish people and a call to put an end to the your tax money to continue any further, but then again,
discriminatory and aggressive presence of the Jewish state. they would probably do nothing about it, for fear of being
Israel, then, does not look to rid the world of anti-Semitism, called anti-Semites.
but to keep anti-Semitism alive as one of its sharpest tools 1. Iranian Jews Slam ‘Emigrant Stunt,’” CNN.com,
of self-justification. Without anti-Semitism, Israel will lose December 26, 2007. Accessed online at http://www.cnn.
its case for Israel. com/2007/WORLD/meast/12/26/iran.israel.jews/
The perpetuation of the Israeli view point that anti-
Semites are out to get them, perpetuates Israel’s engage-
ment in battle in the Middle East. The other cost of the
Holocaust, is costing Americans. The Jewish lobby, headed
by AIPAC, recently made the proud announcement that in We Believe In Saving Lives, Not Face
2009 the US will give the State of Israel $2,550,000,000, an by Cory Bushman
increase of $170,000,000 from its previous year, and part Mosiah 15:16
of a 10-year plan to gradually increase what is called the And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are
Security Aid for Israel. This large sum of tax money could the feet of those that are still publishing peace!
have stayed in your pockets, could have given further sup- On October 24, 1970 members of Brigham Young Uni-
port to Katrina victims, could have helped the poor any- versity’s student body, including the Student Body Presi-
where in the US, could have improved living conditions dent and Executive Vice President, wrote, endorsed and
in neighboring Mexico, could have improved the quality distributed a pamphlet stating their views on war. In the
of schools and hospitals in Iraq, or it could have helped pamphlet it says, “Wars begin in the minds of men. When
► • RETURN
TO ARTICLE
10,000 men decide to go to war, 10,000 wars are fought.

When one man for peace, then one less war rages. Nei-
ther tradition nor strength of numbers provides legitimacy
to individual military involvement. Each man weighing
his knowledge, morals, conscience, and alternatives must
choose his own right.” The pamphlet ends with this simple
statement, “We believe in saving lives, not face.”
Nearly forty years later we find ourselves in a state of
war, and due to the increased polarization of the United
States government we find it no less easy to come to terms
with the current situation. As members of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is our responsibility
to “search, ponder, and pray” and then decide weather
or not we can contentiously support, or not support the
militarization that is currently taking place. In February
of 1855, President John Taylor stated, “We believe that all
men are responsible to God for their religious acts, and
therefore ought to have perfect freedom of conscience.”
Later, President David O. McKay restated Taylor’s sen-
timents, “To deprive an intelligent human being of free
agency is to commit the crime of the ages.” In Foundation of
Religious Life, Brigham Young University’s freshman text
for Religious Education in Church Institutions published
in 1938, it reads, “The first question to decide is whether
aggressive war is ever to be approved. And that question
can not be left much longer solely to the old men in societ-
ies. Neither can such a question be left to the militaristic
groups in society whose profession, livelihood, glory and
emotional traditions center about war.” These teachings

show the importance of individual and personal revelation, way; of accommodating rascals and submissive weaklings;
when used correctly, and not blind faith in government and a mass of men who trot after them without in the least
leadership. knowing their own minds.”
Gordon C. Thomasson, editor of War, Conscription, In a case-study on LDS Conscientious Objectors during
Conscience, and Mormonism, advised, “The Book of Mor- the Vietnam War we find individuals who, like Clawson,
mon is the epitome of just such dogmatic non-absolutism. followed the dictates of their own conscience. One C.O.
As we shall see, it does not give a single easy answer to the based his motivation on “the desire to serve fully both the
question of participation in war. Instead it offers several God that I believe and the humanity that I love.” Another
precedents for understanding which an individual must C.O. stated, “As a Christian, I cannot shrink from the claims
study out in his heart, there after seeking the Lord in prayer of my conscience. I am responsible for my actions. I cannot
to gain confirmation of his decision if it is right.” We must kill.” Elder John A. Widtsoe in his October 1943 Conference
not take this counsel lightly, but sincerely consider what address told the Saints that they were each individually
we believe and then put those beliefs into practice, despite responsible for the “peace of the world.” This proclamation
the consequences of those beliefs. We should be willing holds true today. We are each responsible for the peace of
to follow Apostle Roger Clawson’s proclamation, “I very the world. Melvin J. Ballard wrote explicitly, “I am sure as
much regret that the laws of my country should come in I am that I live that the reason for all the marvels of this
conflict with the laws of God, but whenever they do, I shall age was to abolish poverty, to break down the barriers
invariably choose the latter. If I did not so express myself, between peoples, to make men brothers, and to bring the
I should feel unworthy of the cause I represent.” Too often world into a golden age, the age of peace, when all men
we assume that just because a person is in a position of would cease to learn war.”
“authority” that they will exercise “righteous dominion,” but In order to achieve the age of peace, we must be will-
history does not always support this assumption. History ing to search for truths and then follow the dictates of our
is loaded with dictators, oppressive kings, and inhumane own conscience. It is my sincere hope that we can be the
authoritative figures who, as individuals we would not kind of people who do not blindly forfeit our agency, but
willingly support, even if the majority of those around us actively use our agency to promote peace. Individually
did. In President Ezra Taft Benson’s book An Enemy Hath and as a whole, we need to become a people who are more
Done This, he cites Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s pow- concerned with saving lives than saving face.
erful statement, “There is nothing more odious than the
majority. It consists of a few powerful men who lead the

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 In Loving Memory of Jan “John” Cornellis Van Lent 57
during what was later called the “hongerwinter” because

of the hunger and suffering in their country.
In Loving Memory of Having survived WWII Jan went on to finish school and
Jan “John” Cornellis Van Lent serve in the Dutch military. After his military service, he
became a book keeper in a well known department store
and traveled extensively throughout Europe.
In 1964 Jan met an LDS missionary and converted to
the Mormon Church. It was within the fledgling community
of Dutch Mormons that he met his wife, Maria Doornbos.
They married on Sept 7th 1966 and were sealed in the
Swiss Temple two days later. Jan also served as Bishop of
his congregation in the late 1960’s.
In 1973 Jan and Ria made the bold decision to move
their young family to Canada. They took their two young
children, Marc (born 1971) and Irene (born 1972), as well
as Ria’s mother and little brother. They lived in Toronto
for nearly a year before settling in Calgary. John worked
several different accounting jobs until finding steady work
at Scrap City, a steel and metal recycling com-pany.
In 1983 Jan and Ria moved to Salt Lake City. Their fam-
1934–2008
ily had grown to include Larry (born 1977) and Esther (born
1981). Jan found a successful career with Sinclair Oil until
Jan was born on Aug. 25th 1934 in Rotterdam the Neth- retiring in 1996. He shared his passion for travel with his
erlands. The son of Marinus and Baaltje van Lent. He grew family, making many trips to national parks, Disneyland
up during a dif-ficult period in Dutch history. The German and his native Holland. He had a deep love for his wife,
blitzkrieg leveled the heart of his city in the first days of children and 8 grandchildren. The Mormon Worker Col-
WWII. In the winter of 1944-1945, Jan’s father was taken lective would like to thank John and his wife Ria for their
to a forced labor camp leaving 10 year old Jan, his mother, staunch support of The Mormon Worker from its earliest
and his 1 year old brother Marinus, to fend for themselves days.

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Contributors 58
Gregory VanWagenen is a secular Mormon. In the past

Contributors he organized for the Militant Labor Forum in Salt Lake
City and Los Angeles. He has also worked as a campaign
Cory Bushman is a peace and human rights activist, a
volunteer for the New Democratic Party in the Burnaby-
member of the LDS church and lives in Salt Lake City
Kingsway (British Columbia) riding. He has three chil-
Norman G. Finkelstein received his doctorate in 1988 dren.
from the Depart ment of Politics, Princeton University, for
Will Van Wagenen served an LDS mission to Frankfurt,
a thesis on the theory of Zionism. He’s currently an inde-
Germany. He has a Bachelors Degree in German from
pendent scholar. He has written numerous books, including
Brigham Young University, and a Master’s degree in Theol-
Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, The Rise
ogy from Harvard. Will spent seven months in Iraq doing
and Fall of Palestine, and The Holocaust Industry.
human rights work.
Joshua Madson served an LDS misson to Marilia, Brazil.
Matthew Wappett is an assistant professor at the Uni-
He has a bachelors degree in History from Brigham Young
versity of Idaho where he teaches Disability Studies. He
University and a Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark
is a returned missionary from the Taiwan, Taipei mission
Law School. Joshua currently serves as an Elder’s Quorum
and has served in many Church callings since, including
Instructor.
a couple years as first counselor in the bishopric of the
Abdullah Mulhim is a Palestinian Muslim from Ramal- Eagle River Ward in Eagle River, Alaska. He is an active
lah in the occupied West Bank. He received a degree in supporter of the Green Party and an "academic" Marxist
Finance from Arizona State University. by trade.
Ashley Sanders is the youth spokesperson for the Ralph Marc B. Young is a freelance writer most recently focused
Nader campaign. She blogs at www.projectdeseret.com and on health care policy and, prior to that, African issues.
www.theworldaccordingtoash.com. She graduated from Poetry is his chief interest. A resident of Madrid, Spain
Brigham Young University in philosophy and English, and between 1994 and 2004, he presently lives with his family
is currently earning a Master's degree in English literature in Toronto, where he is a member of the Industrial Work-
and creative writing at Middlebury College. ers of the World and attends an Anglican church.
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 6 Navigation 59
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“I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves” – joseph smith

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his feet, spat on Mercader, and knocked him to the floor

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York Times Middle East correspondent Ethan Bronner re-

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love, charity, and hope into the world.

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3. “You Are Either With Us or Against Us,” CNN.COM,

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death toll began to mount. Doctors from the local hospital

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rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/foto/documento_minis- put secular radicals off, uncomfortable with an emphasis on

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Williams, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, object

any human beings with morals would react when seeing

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10,000 men decide to go to war, 10,000 wars are fought.

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during what was later called the “hongerwinter” because

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Gregory VanWagenen is a secular Mormon. In the past

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