When I was a teen, I read historian Barbara Tuchman's book, The Guns of August. It tells the story of how the international community drifted, almost against its will, into the First World War. One incident Tuchman recounted took palce shortly after that war's armed hostilities began and involved a conversation between the German foreign minister and a visitor to his office. How, the visitor wondered, had it all happened? How had the Great War begun? The foreign minister, in obvious exasperation replied, "Och! If we only knew."
Last evening, President Bush issued an ultimatum to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his regime. Bush told Saddam to depart from Iraq within forty-eight hours or face attack.
There is a surreal quality to all of this. My favorite sports journalist, Tony Kornheiser, spoke for most of us, I think, when he noted on his radio show this morning that he never thought things would come to this.
I never imagined that Saddam would be so in control of things within his country that he could dig in his heels this long in ignoring the commitments he made to disarm at the conclusion of the Gulf War.
I never imagined that the US would actually be doing something America has never done and which presidents from John Quincy Adams to Dwight Eisenhower always repudiated--an American pre-emptive attack.
I certainly never imagined that Robin Cook, a former foreign minister in Tony Blair's government, would sacrifice his political future by resigning from the Labour government in protest of that government's alliance with the Bush Administration regarding Iraq.
I never imagined that the world, which was so firmly in America's corner after September 11, would be so opposed to America today.
It isn't my intention to express whether the President is right in the course he has chosen.
But I doubt that any of us could have imagined the events that have unfolded since President Bush's September 12, 2002 speech before the United Nations General Assembly. Nor could we have imagined the trepidation and fear that even the President's most ardent advocates express about the prospect of war in Iraq and its possible consequences.
Now, we are left to do what we must always do: PRAY!
Today, I received an e-mail from my colleague, Glen VanderKloot, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Springfield, Illinois. Glen pointed out that there is a movement calling Americans to pray for America and for American military personnel every evening at 9:00 P.M.
I like that idea. But I would also like to suggest that at the same time, we pray for the following people and concerns:
(1) Pray that the innocent people of Iraq, the primary victims of Saddam Hussein's tyranny, will be protected from danger and harm.
(2) Pray that the developers and owners of weapons of mass destruction the world over will find more productive, creative ways to use money and resources.
(3) Pray that God will create a hunger in the hearts and minds of world leaders for Jesus Christ, His righteousness, and His wisdom. Pray too, that God will give them the courage to act on what God shows them.
(4) Pray that world terrorism will not be encouraged by this war or its aftermath.
(5) Pray that there will be peace in the Middle East.
We don't know everything. But through Jesus Christ, we do know God and we know that God can guide us through the current international crisis. May God bless our world!
