"But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." (Mt. 5:44)

Let's begin with the basics - war is evil wrong, unjust, obscene, lawless, criminal. War is mass murder and ecological tragedy. And often, war is genocide. Finally, war in a nuclear age threatens to become omnicide.

War is the summit crime against God because it attacks the image of God in every person. War mocks the teaching and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who accepted the Cross and rejected the sword. He lived as He taught us: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself ! " "Love one another as I have loved you! " "Love your enemies ! "

"Either Jesus is a liar or war is never necessary. " (Ben Salmon)

War is killing us, if only we knew it - killing us spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, physically. Killing not just the victims of the 30-35 wars raging now on the planet, but every one. No one escapes the psychic numbing and stagnation of conscience that comes from loving the bomb and military intervention. No one escapes radioactive poison from nuclear testing, nuclear power generation, uranium tailings, nuclear weapons plants, the broken arrows of hundreds of accidents involving major weapons systems. War is a Frankenstein that turns upon its maker.

"In war, the first casualty is truth. " (Aeschylus) One can put it even more strongly - war is THE BIG LIE. What else to call it when it makes enemies of Iraqi children? Added to the 300,000 dead of Desert Storm, the million and one half victims of American sanctions, 70% of them children. That is war by economic terrorism; that is a national declaration of shame. And that is the nexus between the big lie and mass murder.

President Clinton is the most warlike of a long series of warlike American Presidents, beginning with Harry Truman. His twin wars in Iraq and Yugoslavia are both unconstitutional and opposed to the UN Charter. With the UN ignored, Clinton rides behind NATO, though 95% of the war is American. Worse than that, Clinton manipulates NATO (which should have been disbanded when the Soviet Union died) making it a European power projection of American empire, an arms bazaar for American weapons.

The killing in Iraq and Yugoslavia must stop. And only one element will stop it - the American people. We must learn that the Washington imperialists are not our government. We must reject these well-manicured cut throats utterly. We must break the hold the goodies and the banks have on our lives, regain our faith in God and humankind, relearn our nonviolence, take to the streets, military bases, war factories, White House and Pentagon. What the US (and the world) needs is a second American Revolution. This time, a nonviolent one.

For more information contact Jonah House 410-233- 6238
Plan to participate in the Mobilization against the War on June 5 in Washington DC.