Overruling the Rule of Law
by Kerry Walters

The rule of law states that it's a crime to "interfere with, impair, or influence the loyalty" of  "any member of the military or naval forces of the United States," and that violators are subject to both a fine and imprisonment of up to ten years (18 USC Section 2387).

But at what point does honoring the rule of law become an excuse for complacency in the face of injustice?  When does civil obedience become a moral failing?  These are questions that citizens need to ask on a regular basis.  They're questions that cry out to be asked now about the war in Iraq.

Put simply, the war is immoral.  This assertion has nothing to do with partisan politics.  It's not a "democrat" vs "republican" claim.  Instead, it's a conclusion based on at least the following facts (how often must they be repeated?!):

(1)  The war was entered into without a formal declaration of war from Congress.  Such a declaration is mandated by the Constitution.

(2)  The pretexts for entering into the war were absolutely false.  There were no weapons of mass destruction.  There was no nuclear weapons capability.  There was no link with al Qaeda.  And if the invasion was "humanitarian intervention" to "bring about democracy," as government officials now claim, why select Iraq instead of any one of dozens of other repressive regimes?

(3)  In violation of international codes of conduct, prisoners were routinely tortured at Abu Ghraib and reportedly are still being tortured at Guantanamo.

(4)  The Iraqi city of Fallujah was leveled in a military action late last year that many commentators are comparing to the 1937 fascist destruction of the Spanish town of Guernica.  Citizens were forcibly driven from their homes, and bombs weighing hundreds of pounds turned the city into rubble.  Civilians who refused to leave their homes were killed in the bombardment.

(5)  Reports of American military misconduct in Iraq that violates international codes of just warfare are on the upswing.  Noncombatants are regularly killed and imprisoned; populations are forcibly transferred; unarmed prisoners are fired upon and deliberately placed in the line of fire; crops, villages, and private property are seized or destroyed; hospitals and houses of worship are bombed; economic sanctions which harm noncombatants are imposed; and weapons such as cluster bombs and depleted uranium shells, which do special damage to noncombatants, are regularly employed.  The most conservative estimate of civilian deaths is at the 21,000 mark.  Estimates of the number of wounded civilians are in the tens of thousands.

In short, the Iraq war violates every conceivable standard of "just" warfare.  It was entered into for the wrong reasons and is being conducted in an immoral fashion.  Moreover, there is clearly no coherent exit strategy, suggesting that the United States plans to remain there for some time to come--this in spite of the fact that a recent poll shows that a full 57 percent of U.S. citizens thinks that going to war was a bad idea.

It's never easy to serve in the armed forces.  But the burden becomes unacceptable when one is called to participate in a war that is immoral and which grows dirtier each day.  It's bad enough to die in such a war, but it's worse to take part in its killing.  The first slays the body.  The second risks destroying the soul.

But of course all of us who support the Iraq War, whether we sit nice and safe stateside or wear helmets and carry guns in Baghdad, are complicitous in the killing.  All of us who complacently tolerate the war because we're too lazy or indifferent to face up to its evil, are complicitous in the killing.  All of us who fall into the 57 percent that think the war is wrong but who do nothing to stop it, are complicitous in the killing.  Our hands are bloody and our souls are in danger.

So I call upon my fellow citizens to quit hiding behind the rule of law. If you think the war is wrong, protest it.  Stir things up.  Refuse to pay your taxes.  Refuse to support the government.  Let the military know that you think its actions are wicked.  Discourage the youth you know from enlisting in the armed forces.  Block entrances to recruiting stations.  Refuse to wave the flag.  Picket public meetings.  Leaflet parking lots.  Take down the yellow ribbons and replace them with black ones.  Engage in strenuous and imaginative civil disobedience.  Doing so isn't an act of disloyalty to your country.  It's an act of loyalty to the ideals your country ought to be honoring but isn't.  It's an act of loyalty to God.

And to those young men and women currently on active duty or in the National Guard or the Reserves, I say this:  think about what you're being called to do.  Do you really want to kill another human being?  Do you really think the war you're being pushed into is moral?  Do you really think you owe it to your country to stain your soul?  Don't let yourself be flimflammed by patriotic jingoism.  Follow your conscience.  Remember what it means to be decent.  Remember your God.  Don't spend the rest of your life wishing you could wash the blood off your hands.  Do the right thing.  Resist.

Kerry Walters is a Christian pacifist who lives in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.  He was discharged from the Air Force as a conscientious objector in the early 1970s.  He teaches philosophy and peace & justice studies at Gettysburg College, and is co-editor of "Episcopal Peace Witness," the national quarterly of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship.  He may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .