The Holiday Hoax
by
William E. Alberts*


In the name of our most cherished beliefs, leaders can dupe us into supporting policies that are the very opposite of those beliefs.
President Bush visited surprised and enthralled American troops in Iraq at Thanksgiving, telling them, “We’re proud of you. . . . And this year we are especially thankful for the courage and sacrifice of those who defend us. . . . You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq, so that we don’t have to face them in our own country. . . . By helping to build a peaceful and democratic country in the heart of the Middle East, you are defending the American people from danger and we are grateful. . . . Those who attack our coalition forces and innocent Iraqis are testing our will. They hope we will run. We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost in casualties, defeat a brutal dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins.” (The New York Times, Nov. 28, 2003)
 “A brutal dictator.” Were not the United States and the United Kingdom friends and allies of Saddam Hussein when he was committing atrocities against his own people? Did not U.S. intelligence agencies provide Iraq
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*Dr. William E. Alberts is hospital chaplain at Boston Medical Center. Both a Unitarian Universalist and a United Methodist minister, he received his Ph.D. from Boston University in the field of Psychology and Pastoral Counseling. His numerous essays and articles on racism, politics and religion have appeared in newspapers, magazines and journals, with research reports on mainstream print media’s coverage of issue of race and racism published by the William Monroe Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and by Sage race relations abstracts, London, UK. Dr. Alberts’
e-mail address is: william.alberts@bmc.org.



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with satellite photographs of the positions of Iranian forces, knowing that Iraqi commanders would use chemical weapons in the decisive battles of their 1981-88 war? Was not the aim of that support to prevent Iran from
overrunning Persian Gulf countries and gaining control of their oil?
 “A band of thugs and assassins.” What do you think the British occupiers
called the American colonists during the Revolutionary War? What do you
think the invading colonists called the Native Americans? Do killing and
injuring people with “precision” and “smart” bombs fired from a great
distance make one less a “thug”? In his last State of the Union address, did
not President Bush himself boast of assassinating people when referring to the
“fate” of many “terrorists”: “Let’s put it this way, they are no longer a
problem to the United States and our friends and allies?”
 “Those who attack our coalition forces and kill innocent Iraqis are testing our will.” How many tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed and injured by American and British 21,000 pound “shock and awe” bombs—and in their “charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq?” How many hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children under the age of five died in the last 12 years as a result of the United States-controlled UN Security Council-imposed economic sanctions against Iraq?
 “We did not . . . pay a bitter cost in casualties . . . and liberate 25 million people only to retreat . . .” If “25 million people” were liberated, why did President Bush need to sneak into and out of Iraq under cover of darkness? Why could he not show his face to the “liberated” Iraqi people? And why is this clandestine act perceived as brave?
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 “You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq so that we don’t have to face them in our own country.” Whatever happened to Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, which were the Bush administration’s urgent justification for pre-emptive war, and about which the President continually warned, “We cannot wait for the final proof that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud?” Are American troops “defeating the terrorists in Iraq” to keep them from coming here? Or has a country that had no known connection with the
atrocities of 9/11, and was no threat to our nation, now become the rallying
cry for anti-American sentiment, recruitment and resistance—with the
widespread goodwill of Muslim people toward Americans after 9/11 gone,
and the “liberators” now perceived as their number one enemy by many in the
Arab world?
 “By helping to build a peaceful and democratic country in the heart of the Middle East, you are defending the American people from danger.” Is the Bush administration’s pre-emptive war against Iraq about “peace” and “democracy”? Or about lucrative, no-bid Iraqi contracts for politically
connected Halliburton and Bechtel and the like? About controlling the
world’s resources of energy for power and profit? About domination in the
name of “the loving God behind all of life and all of history”? (The New York
Times, Jan. 29, 2003) About waging predatory war in the name of “peace on
earth?”
The Christmas story of “peace on earth” is about a prophet who came “to set at
liberty those who are oppressed” not use their oppression as a pretext for coveting their
oil. A prophet who saw his mission as empowering people not gaining power over them
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in the pursuit of global domination. A prophet who taught that the Sabbath was made for
people not people for the Sabbath, that love of God and of one’s neighbor as oneself are
the greatest commandments. A prophet whose birth thrust into our midst every human
being’s inalienable right to his and her space, identity, belief, fulfillment.
If President Bush really supported the troops, he would have brought them home
with him at Thanksgiving, instead of using a holiday hoax to boost their morale so they
would continue killing and maiming and being maimed and killed-- and dehumanized,
leading a number to commit suicide which is rarely publicized. If they had returned home with him, there would be no more body bags unloaded from public view at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. And the President, who flew all the way to Baghdad for a
2 ½ hour visit with the troops, would not have to continue distancing himself from the
funerals here of those killed and their grieving loved ones. That kind of unwanted
publicity would put a flesh and blood “spin” on his being “especially thankful for the
courage and sacrifice of those who defend us.” Real support for our troops also calls for
his administration to turn over control of the restoration of Iraq to the United Nations, so
that an authentic, truly free Iraqi body of, by and for its people can be formed and govern.
This holiday season may we see through the hoax and oppose the waging of war
in the name of “peace on earth.” When his disciples asked, “Who is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven?,” Jesus did not pick up a sword but a child, and put him in their
midst and said, “Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1-4). “There’s no place like home for the holidays”--
for everyone.
Happy, hoax-free holidays!