The Mormon Worker - Issue 6 - Mar 09

8/8/2019 The Mormon Worker - Issue 6 - Mar 09

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Saints o the Fourth International:Remembering Joe and Reba Hansen

by Gregory VanWagenen

On the morning o 20 August 1940, Ramon Mercader made

his way rom Mexico City to the small town o Coyoacan,

where he was ushered into the study o Leon Trotsky.

He came ostensibly seeking advice rom the architect o

the Bolshevik Revolution, with an article he claimed to have

written or the Spanish underground press. History reveals

his true motive. Jose Stalin sent him as an assassin.As Trotsky sat down at his desk to peruse the work,

he was attacked rom behind. It was a glancing but deadly

blow rom the pointed end o an ice-axe, the type o tool a

mountain climber would use to scale a peak. Mercader had

hidden the instrument in his attache case. Later he would

describe the scenario as a wonderul opportunity which

I simply couldnt let pass...

Despite the peroration o his skull, Trotsky leapt to

THE

Mormon Worker

I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves josephsmith

Issue 6 March 2009

Saints o the Fourth International:Remembering Joe and Reba Hansen by Gregory VanWagenen

Foiling Another Palestinian Peace Oensive:Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza by Norman FinkelsteinThe Gospel o Redistribution? by Matthew WappettWhen is Violence Justifed?

The Curious Case o Sgt. Hassan Akbar by Cliff BurtonAbrahams One Percent Doctrine and the

Criminal U.S. Assault on Fallujah by Joshua MadsonBetween Christianity and the Libertarian Let:

How Wide the Gap? Part II by Marc YoungImpressions o a Young Arab Generation by Abdullah MulhimKilling or Ideology: A Brie History o US Eorts to

Establish a Free-Market Capitalist Economy in Iraq by William Van WagenenObamas Election: Genuine Revolution

or Successul Branding Campaign? by Ashley SandersThe Other Cost O The Holocaust by Tovah Ben DavidWe Believe In Saving Lives, Not Face by Cory BushmanContributors Navigation

Click on the name of an article to go there


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2The Mormon Worker Issue 6

his eet, spat on Mercader, and knocked him to the oor

beore alling to his knees.

The only other man present was Trotskys student and

personal secretary, Joe Hansen, Hansen tackled the assas-

sin beore the death-blow could be delivered, shouting or

help. While Hansen didnt manage to save his teacherslie, he certainly prolonged it. Trotsky would die the next

evening.

Joseph Joe Hansen was born at home in Salt Lake City

on 16 June, 1910. Joe would be the eldest o fteen children

to be born to Conrad, a Norwegian immigrant, and his wie

Rose Hansen (ne Christensen). Conrad and Rose were

sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple in September o 1909,

and his ather became a U.S. Citizen that same year.

Conrad Hansen had been born to a fshing amily in

the Norwegian polar region, and

had spent his childhood being

trained in the amily business.

While religion had prompted his

immigration, he ound himsel

unable to make a prosperousliving in Zion as a commercial

fsherman.

Ater the birth o Joes

younger sister, the Hansen am-

ily traveled to Richfeld, Utah

where Conrad worked as a tailor,

and then to White Pine County,

Nevada, where the amily (including young Joe) worked in

A Note to Our Readers

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lished by members o the LDS Church. The paper is mod-

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The primary objective o The Mormon Worker is to mean-

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host o political, economic, ecological, philosophical, and

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Although most contributors o The Mormon Worker are

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The opinions in The Mormon Worker are not the ofcial

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In solidarity,

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Saints of the Fourth International: Remembering Joe and Reba Hansen

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a hard-rock mining camp. Eventually the Hansens returned

to settle in Central Utah.

Having nothing but the tenacious desire to pursue an

education, Joseph Hansen let home at seventeen or Salt

Lake City. He began auditing classes at the University o

Utah in 1928, supporting himsel with a series o odd jobswhen he could fnd them. With the help o riends on cam-

pus he was able to matriculate the ollowing year. While he

only attended part-time, he made a name or himsel as an

editor o The Pen (the campus literary magazine) and was

well regarded as a hard worker by his teachers and peers.

It was at school where he met and married his lielong

companion, Reba (ne Hooper). They were married in a

civil ceremony on 11 July 1931. Reba Hooper-Hansen was

the granddaughter o Heber C. Kimball.

In 1934, Joe and Reba let Utah or San Francisco. Once

on the coast, Joe signed on briey to a merchant ship, while

Reba took odd jobs. His time at port was spent working or

the Communist League o America. He served as a sta

writer or the Voice o the Federation (the newspaper or

the Mariners Unions o the Pacifc).It was in 1937 that Joe let the United States to join the

exiled Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico.

Reba remained behind, becoming ever more personally

active in politics.

About his teacher, Joe would later write:

Trotsky's name had come into my consciousness when

I was nine years old. It was ater World War I in a small

Utah town where my ather was working as a tailor. Even

here the Russian revolution was regarded avorably and

was much discussed...

Joe would serve and study under Comrade Trotsky

or over two years. His frst published work, a current

events piece critical o the pro-ascist radio priest Charles

Coughlin, appeared in the Socialist Appeal on 12 July, 1939,while in Trotskys employ.

While Mercader was successul, he was not the frst

murderer sent by the Soviets to eliminate their theoretical

rival. Only weeks beore the atal attack, Joe had witnessed

an earlier attempt.

MEXICO At approximately our oclock in the morn-

ing o May 24, some twenty-fve men under the direction

o Stalins GPU penetrated the high walls surrounding

Leon Trotskys house in Coyoacan, and riddled with ma-

chine gun slugs the bedroom where Trotsky and his wie,

Natalia, slept. Robert Sheldon Harte, the secretary-guard

on duty and member o the Socialist Workers Party, was

kidnapped and murdered, his body thrown into a shallow

pit flled with lime. Leon and Natalia Trotsky owe their

lives only to their own cool-headedness in a moment oterrible danger and to a ortunate accident the belie o

the assassins that they had completed their assignment.

Ater the assassination o his riend and mentor, Joe

rejoined his wie in San Francisco. There he enlisted as a

merchant mariner, supporting the war against ascism. At

the end o the conict he resumed his work in politics.

In 1945, Joe and Reba moved to New York City, where

both began working or The Militant, a socialist newspa-



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per which, inspired by Trotsky, was critical o both the

capitalist west and the institutionalized bureaucracy o the

Soviet Union. That same year, Hansen declared himsel

a Socialist candidate or the New York delegation to the

United States Senate. He ran again, or the same seat, in

1950. From 1950 to 1959 he was editor o the InternationalSocialist Review, the theoretical magazine o the Socialist

Workers' Party.

In 1960 Joe traveled to Havana with Farrell Dobbs, re-

turning to orm the Fair Play For Cuba Committee. Among

Hansen's contacts during this time were Alan Ginsburg

and Norman Mailer.

The Communist League o America, which had by now

changed its name to the Socialist Workers Party, became

increasingly popular with union members and student

activists in the 1960s. The party was one o the frst to

publish speeches by Malcolm X, and the organ o the SWP

regularly took interviews rom Arican-American political

radicals.

In 1963, Joe was in charge o the Socialist Workers

Party delegation to the United Secretariat o the FourthInternational in Paris. That year he wrote:

The healing o a ten-year-old division in the ranks

o the majority o the Fourth Internationalthe World

Party o the Socialist Revolutionwhich took place at a

Reunifcation Congress held in Italy in June, marks a most

encouraging step orward or the movement ounded by

Leon Trotsky in 1938.

Throughout their lives, the Hansens would author doz-

ens o books and articles. Joe regularly lectured in Paris

and New York City on the desperate need or workers

and armers to transcend the racial and ethnic divisions

that were and are used by the ruling class to divide and

subjugate. The Hansens were unashamed critics o the

excesses o the Soviet Union and the People's Republic oChina, consistently oering a third position to struggling

workers and armers in the west, and hope or reorm to

the dissidents within the sphere o the established Com-

munist states o Eurasia.

Joseph Hansen died in January 1979 in New York City's

Mount Sinai Hospital. He was sixty-nine years old. George

Novack wrote his obituary, in which he described the lie

o this Mormon boy as exemplary. Mary-Alice Waters

organized Hansens uneral in New York, which drew over

fve hundred mourners. Simultaneous memorial services

were held in Toronto, San Francisco, Mexico City and Bom-

bay. James Cannon once described Joe as a man o great

determination, who patterned his lie and working habits

upon the moral examples o his parents and teachers.

Reba Hooper-Hansen continued to tirelessly promotethe cause o working people until her own death in 1990.

She is best known or managing the Intercontinental Press

between 1969 and 1985, which published dozens o Leon

Trotskys essays and articles or a much wider audience

than they were ever originally intended.

Joe and Rebas papers are archived at the Hoover In-

stitution o Stanord University.



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Foiling Another Palestinian PeaceOffensive: Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza

by Norman Finkelstein

Early speculation on the motive behind Israels slaugh-

ter in Gaza that began on 27 December 2008 and continued

till 18 January 2009 centered on the upcoming elections in

Israel. The jockeying or votes was no doubt a actor in this

Sparta-like society consumed by revenge and the thirst

or blood, where killing Arabs is a sure crowd-pleaser.

(Polls during the war showed that 80-90 percent o Israeli

Jews supported it.) But as Israeli journalist Gideon Levy

pointed out on Democracy Now!, Israel went through a

very similar war...two-and-a-hal years ago [in Lebanon],

when there were no elections. When crucial state inter-

ests are at stake, Israeli ruling elites seldom launch ma-

jor operations or narrowly electoral gains. It is true that

Prime Minister Menachem Begins decision to bomb the

Iraqi OSIRAK reactor in 1981 was an electoral ploy, but thestrategic stakes in the strike on Iraq were puny; contrary

to widespread belie, Saddam Hussein had not embarked

on a nuclear weapons program prior to the bombing. The

undamental motives behind the latest Israeli attack on

Gaza lie elsewhere: (1) in the need to restore Israels de-

terrence capacity, and (2) in the threat posed by a new

Palestinian peace oensive.

Israels larger concern in the current oensive, New

York Times Middle East correspondent Ethan Bronner re-

ported, quoting Israeli sources, was to re-establish Israeli

deterrence, because its enemies are less araid o it than

they once were, or should be. Preserving its deterrence ca-

pacity has always loomed large in Israeli strategic doctrine.

Indeed, it was the main impetus behind Israels frst-strikeagainst Egypt in June 1967 that resulted in Israels occupa-

tion o Gaza (and the West Bank). To justiy the onslaught

on Gaza, Israeli historian Benny Morris wrote that [m]

any Israelis eel that the walls...are closing in...much as

they elt in early June 1967. Ordinary Israelis no doubt elt

threatened in June 1967, butas Morris surely knowsthe

Israeli leadership experienced no such trepidation. Ater

Israel threatened and laid plans to attack Syria, Egyptian

President Gamal Abdel Nasser declared the Straits o Ti-

ran closed to Israeli shipping, but Israel made almost no

use o the Straits (apart rom the passage o oil, o which

Israel then had ample stocks) and, anyhow, Nasser did not

in practice enorce the blockade, vessels passing reely

through the Straits within days o his announcement. In

addition, multiple U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded

that the Egyptians did not intend to attack Israel and that, in

the improbable case that they did, alone or in concert with

other Arab countries, Israel wouldin President Lyndon

Johnsons wordswhip the hell out o them. The head

o the Mossad told senior American ofcials on 1 June 1967

that there were no dierences between the U.S. and the

Israelis on the military intelligence picture or its interpre-

tation. The predicament or Israel was rather the growing

Foiling Another Palestinian Peace Offensive: Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza


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perception in the Arab world, spurred by Nassers radical

nationalism and climaxing in his defant gestures in May

1967, that it would no longer have to ollow Israeli orders.

Thus, Divisional Commander Ariel Sharon admonished

those in the Israeli cabinet hesitant to launch a frst-strike

that Israel was losing its deterrence capability...our mainweaponthe ear o us. Israel unleashed the June 1967

war to restore the credibility o Israeli deterrence (Israeli

strategic analyst Zeev Maoz).

The expulsion o the Israeli occupying army by Hezbol-

lah in May 2000 posed a major new challenge to Israels

deterrence capacity. The act that Israel suered a humili-

ating deeat, one celebrated throughout the Arab world,

made another war well-nigh inevitable. Israel almost im-

mediately began planning or the next round, and in sum-

mer 2006 ound a pretext when Hezbollah captured two

Israeli soldiers (several others were killed in the frefght)

and demanded in exchange the release o Lebanese prison-

ers held by Israel. Although Israel unleashed the ury o its

air orce and geared up or a ground invasion, it suered

yet another ignominious deeat. A respected American

military analyst despite being partial to Israel nonetheless

concluded, the IAF, the arm o the Israel military that had

once destroyed whole air orces in a ew days, not only

proved unable to stop Hezbollah rocket strikes but even

to do enough damage to prevent Hezbollahs rapid recov-

ery; that once ground orces did cross into Lebanon...,

they ailed to overtake Hezbollah strongholds, even those

close to the border; that in terms o Israels objectives,

the kidnapped Israeli soldiers were neither rescued nor

released; Hezbollahs rocket fre was never suppressed,

not even its long-range fre...; and Israeli ground orces

were badly shaken and bogged down by a well-equipped

and capable oe; and that more troops and a massive

ground invasion would indeed have produced a dierentoutcome, but the notion that somehow that eort would

have resulted in a more decisive victory over Hezbollah...

has no basis in historical example or logic. The juxtaposi-

tion o several fgures urther highlights the magnitude o

the setback: Israel deployed 30,000 troops as against 2,000

regular Hezbollah fghters and 4,000 irregular Hezbol-

lah and non-Hezbollah fghters; Israel delivered and fred

162,000 weapons whereas Hezbollah fred 5,000 weapons

(4,000 rockets and projectiles at Israel and 1,000 antitank

missiles inside Lebanon). Moreover, the vast majority o

the fghters who deended villages such as Ayta ash Shab,

Bint Jbeil, and Maroun al-Ras were not, in act, regular

Hezbollah fghters and in some cases were not even mem-

bers o Hezbollah, and many o Hezbollahs best and

most skilled fghters never saw action, lying in wait along

the Litani River with the expectation that the IDF assault

would be much deeper and arrive much aster than it did.

Yet another indication o Israels reversal o ortune was

that, unlike any o its previous armed conicts, in the fnal

stages o the 2006 war it ought not in defance o a U.N.

ceasefre resolution but in the hope o a U.N. resolution

to rescue it.

Ater the 2006 Lebanon war Israel was itching to take



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on Hezbollah again, but did not yet have a military op-

tion against it. In mid-2008 Israel desperately sought to

conscript the U.S. or an attack on Iran, which would also

decapitate Hezbollah, and thereby humble the main chal-

lengers to its regional hegemony. Israel and its quasi-ofcial

emissaries such as Benny Morris threatened that i the U.S.did not go along then non-conventional weaponry will

have to be used, and many innocent Iranians will die. To

Israels chagrin and humiliation, the attack never material-

ized and Iran has gone its merry way, while the credibility

o Israels capacity to terrorize slipped another notch. It

was high time to fnd a deenseless target to annihilate.

Enter Gaza, Israels avorite shooting gallery. Even there

the eebly armed Islamic movement Hamas had defantly

resisted Israeli diktat, in June 2008 even compelling Israel

to agree to a ceasefre.

During the 2006 Lebanon war Israel attened the south-

ern suburb o Beirut known as the Dahiya, where Hezbollah

commanded much popular support. In the wars atermathIsraeli military ofcers began reerring to the Dahiya

strategy: We shall pulverize the 160 Shiite villages [in

Lebanon] that have turned into Shiite army bases, the

IDF Northern Command Chie explained, and we shall

not show mercy when it comes to hitting the national

inrastructure o a state that, in practice, is controlled by

Hezbollah. In the event o hostilities, a reserve Colonel at

the Israeli Institute or National Security Studies chimed in,

Israel needs to act immediately, decisively, and with orce

that is disproportionate....Such a response aims at inicting

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 o Israels regional

adversaries who had waxed defantthe Palestinians in

Gaza are all Khaled Mashaal, the Lebanese are all Nasral-

lah, and the Iranians are all Ahmadinejadbut Gaza was

the prime target or this blitzkrieg-cum-bloodbath strat-

egy. Too bad it did not take hold immediately ater the

disengagement rom Gaza and the frst rocket barrages,

a respected Israeli columnist lamented. Had we immedi-

ately adopted the Dahiya strategy, we would have likely

spared ourselves much trouble. Ater a Palestinian rocket

attack, Israels Interior Minister urged in late September


3850% of the Palestinian population is under the age of 14


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2008, the IDF should...decide on a neighborhood in Gaza

and level it. And, insoar as the Dahiya strategy could not

be inicted just yet on Lebanon and Iran, it was predictably

pre-tested in Gaza.

The operative plan or the Gaza bloodbath can be

gleaned rom authoritative statements ater the war gotunderway: What we have to do is act systematically with

the aim o punishing all the organizations that are fring

the rockets and mortars, as well as the civilians who are

enabling them to fre and hide (reserve Major-General);

Ater this operation there will not be one Hamas building

let standing in Gaza (Deputy IDF Chie o Sta); Any-

thing afliated with Hamas is a legitimate target (IDF

Spokespersons Ofce). Whereas Israel killed a mere 55

Lebanese during the frst two days o the 2006 war, the

Israeli media exulted at Israels shock and awe (Maariv)

as it killed more than 300 Palestinians in the frst two

days o the attack on Gaza. Several days into the slaughter

an inormed Israeli strategic analyst observed, The IDF,

which planned to attack buildings and sites populated by

hundreds o people, did not warn them in advance to leave,

but intended to kill a great many o them, and succeeded.

Morris could barely contain his pride at Israels highly

efcient air assault on Hamas. The Israeli columnist B.

Michael was less impressed by the dispatch o helicopter

gunships and jet planes over a giant prison and fring at its

people or example, 70...trafc cops at their graduation

ceremony, young men in desperate search o a livelihood

who thought theyd ound it in the police and instead ound

death rom the skies.

As Israel targeted schools, mosques, hospitals, ambu-

lances, and U.N. sanctuaries, as it slaughtered and inciner-

ated Gazas deenseless civilian population (one-third o the

1,200 reported casualties were children), Israeli commenta-

tors gloated that Gaza is to Lebanon as the second sittingor an exam is to the frsta second chance to get it right,

and that this time around Israel had hurled [Gaza] back,

not 20 years as it promised to do in Lebanon, but into the

1940s. Electricity is available only or a ew hours a day;

that Israel regained its deterrence capabilities because

the war in Gaza has compensated or the shortcomings

o the [2006] Second Lebanon War; and that There is

no doubt that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is upset

these days....There will no longer be anyone in the Arab

world who can claim that Israel is weak.

New York Times oreign aairs expert Thomas Fried-

man joined in the chorus o hallelujahs. Israel in act won

the 2006 Lebanon war, according to Friedman, because it

had inicted substantial property damage and collateral

casualties on Lebanon at large, thereby administering an

education to Hezbollah: earing the Lebanese peoples

wrath, Hezbollah would think three times next time be-

ore deying Israel. He expressed hope that Israel was

likewise trying to educate Hamas by inicting a heavy

death toll on Hamas militants and heavy pain on the Gaza

population. To justiy the targeting o Lebanese civilians

and civilian inrastructure Friedman asserted that Israel

had no other option because Hezbollah created a very



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at military network...deeply embedded in the local towns

and villages, and that because Hezbollah nested among

civilians, the only long-term source o deterrence was to

exact enough pain on the civilians...to restrain Hezbollah

in the uture.

Leaving aside Friedmans hollow coinageswhat doesat mean?and leaving aside that he alleged that the

killing o civilians was unavoidable but also recommends

targeting civilians as a deterrence strategy: is it even

true that Hezbollah was embedded in, nested among,

and intertwined with the Lebanese civilian population?

Heres what Human Rights Watch concluded ater an ex-

haustive investigation: we ound strong evidence that

Hezbollah stored most o its rockets in bunkers and weapon

storage acilities located in uninhabited felds and valleys,

that in the vast majority o cases Hezbollah fghters let

populated civilian areas as soon as the fghting started, and

that Hezbollah fred the vast majority o its rockets rom

pre-prepared positions outside villages. And again, in all

but a ew o the cases o civilian deaths we investigated,

Hezbollah fghters had not mixed with the civilian popula-

tion or taken other actions to contribute to the targeting

o a particular home or vehicle by Israeli orces. Indeed,

Israels own fring patterns in Lebanon support the con-

clusion that Hezbollah fred large numbers o its rockets

rom tobacco felds, banana, olive and citrus groves, and

more remote, unpopulated valleys.

A U.S. Army War College study based largely on inter-

views with Israeli participants in the Lebanon war similarly


ound that the key battlefelds in the land campaign south

o the Litani River were mostly devoid o civilians, and

IDF participants consistently report little or no meaningul

intermingling o Hezbollah fghters and noncombatants.

Nor is there any systematic reporting o Hezbollah using

civilians in the combat zone as shields. On a related note,the authors report that the great majority o Hezbollahs

fghters wore uniorms. In act, their equipment and cloth-

ing were remarkably similar to many state militaries

desert or green atigues, helmets, web vests, body armor,

dog tags, and rank insignia.

Friedman urther asserted that, rather than conronting

Israels Army head-on, Hezbollah fred rockets at Israels

civilian population to provoke Israeli retaliatory strikes,

inevitably killing Lebanese civilians and inaming the

Arab-Muslim street. Yet, numerous studies have shown,

and Israeli ofcials themselves conceded that, during its

guerrilla war against the Israeli occupying army, Hezbollah

only targeted Israeli civilians ater Israel targeted Leba-

nese civilians. In conormity with past practice Hezbollah

started fring rockets toward Israeli civilian concentra-

tions during the 2006 war only ater Israel inicted heavy

casualties on Lebanese civilians, while Hezbollah leader

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah avowed that it would target Israeli

civilians as long as the enemy undertakes its aggression

without limits or red lines.

I Israel targeted the Lebanese civilian population and

inrastructure during the 2006 war, it was not because it had

no choice, and not because Hezbollah had provoked it, but


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because terrorizing the civilian population was a relatively

cost-ree method o education, much to be preerred over

fghting a real oe and suering heavy casualties, although

Hezbollahs unexpectedly ferce resistance prevented Is-

rael rom achieving a victory on the battlefeld. In the case

o Gaza it was able both to educate the population andachieve a military victory becausein the words o Gideon

Levythe fghting in Gaza was war deluxe. Compared

with previous wars, it is childs playpilots bombing un-

impeded as i on practice runs, tank and artillery soldiers

shelling houses and civilians rom their armored vehicles,

combat engineering troops destroying entire streets in

their ominous protected vehicles without acing serious

opposition. A large, broad army is fghting against a help-

less population and a weak, ragged organization that has

ed the conict zones and is barely putting up a fght.

The justifcation put orth by Friedman in the pages o

the Times or targeting civilians and civilian inrastructure

amounted to apologetics or state terrorism. It might be

recalled that although Hitler had stripped Nazi propa-

gandist Julius Streicher o all his political power by 1940,

and his newspaper Der Stuermer had a circulation o only

some 15,000 during the war, the International Tribunal at

Nuremberg nonetheless sentenced him to death or his

murderous incitement.

Beyond restoring its deterrence capacity, Israels main

goal in the Gaza slaughter was to end o the latest threat

posed by Palestinian moderation. For the past three decades

the international community has consistently supported

a settlement o the Israel-Palestine conict that calls or

two states based on a ull Israeli withdrawal to its June

1967 border, and a just resolution o the reugee question

based on the right o return and compensation. The vote

on the annual U.N. General Assembly resolution, Peace-

ul Settlement o the Question o Palestine, supportingthese terms or resolving the conict in 2008 was 164 in

avor, 7 against (Israel, United States, Australia, Marshall

Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau), and 3 abstentions. At

the regional level the Arab League in March 2002 unani-

mously put orth a peace initiative on this basis, which it

has subsequently reafrmed. In recent times Hamas has

repeatedly signaled its own acceptance o such a settle-

ment. For example, in March 2008 Khalid Mishal, head o

Hamass Political Bureau, stated in an interview:

There is an opportunity to deal with this conict in

a manner dierent than Israel and, behind it, the U.S. is

dealing with it today. There is an opportunity to achieve a

Palestinian national consensus on a political program based

on the 1967 borders, and this is an exceptional circumstance,

in which most Palestinian orces, including Hamas, accept a

state on the 1967 borders....There is also an Arab consensus

on this demand, and this is a historic situation. But no one

is taking advantage o this opportunity. No one is moving

to cooperate with this opportunity. Even this minimum

that has been accepted by the Palestinians and the Arabs

has been rejected by Israel and by the U.S.

Israel is ully cognizant that the Hamas Charter is not

an insurmountable obstacle to a two-state settlement on



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the June 1967 border. [T]he Hamas leadership has rec-

ognized that its ideological goal is not attainable and will

not be in the oreseeable uture, a ormer Mossad head

recently observed. [T]hey are ready and willing to see

the establishment o a Palestinian state in the temporary

borders o 1967....They know that the moment a Palestin-ian state is established with their cooperation, they will be

obligated to change the rules o the game: They will have

to adopt a path that could lead them ar rom their original

ideological goals.

In addition, Hamas was careul to maintain the cease-

fre it entered into with Israel in June 2008, according to

an ofcial Israeli publication, despite Israels reneging on

the crucial component o the truce that it ease the eco-

nomic siege o Gaza. The lull was sporadically violated

by rocket and mortar shell fre, carried out by rogue ter-

rorist organizations, the source continues. At the same

time, the [Hamas] movement tried to enorce the terms

o the arrangement on the other terrorist organizations

and to prevent them rom violating it. Moreover, Hamas

was interested in renewing the relative calm with Israel

(Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin). The Islamic movement could

thus be trusted to stand by its word, making it a credible

negotiating partner, while its apparent ability to extract

concessions rom Israel, unlike the hapless Palestinian

Authority doing Israels bidding but getting no returns,

enhanced Hamass stature among Palestinians. For Israel

these developments constituted a veritable disaster. It

could no longer justiy shunning Hamas, and it would

be only a matter o time beore international pressure in

particular rom the Europeans would be exerted on it to

negotiate. The prospect o an incoming U.S. administration

negotiating with Iran and Hamas, and moving closer to the

international consensus or settling the Israel-Palestine

conict, which some U.S. policymakers now advocate,would have urther highlighted Israels intransigence. In

an alternative scenario, speculated on by Nasrallah, the

incoming American administration plans to convene an

international peace conerence o Americans, Israelis,

Europeans and so-called Arab moderates to impose a

settlement. The one obstacle is Palestinian resistance and

the Hamas government in Gaza, and getting rid o this

stumbling block is...the true goal o the war. In either case,

Israel needed to provoke Hamas into breaking the truce,

and then radicalize or destroy it, thereby eliminating it as a

legitimate negotiating partner. It is not the frst time Israel

conronted such a diabolical threatan Arab League peace

initiative, Palestinian support or a two-state settlement and

a Palestinian ceasefreand not the frst time it embarked

on provocation and war to overcome it.

In the mid-1970s the PLO mainstream began supporting

a two-state settlement on the June 1967 border. In addition,

the PLO, headquartered in Lebanon, was strictly adher-

ing to a truce with Israel that had been negotiated in July

1981. In August 1981 Saudi Arabia unveiled, and the Arab

League subsequently approved, a peace plan based on the

two-state settlement. Israel reacted in September 1981 by

stepping up preparations to destroy the PLO. In his analysis



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o the buildup to the 1982 Lebanon war, Israeli strategic

analyst Avner Yaniv reported that Yasser Araat was con-

templating a historic compromise with the Zionist state,

whereas all Israeli cabinets since 1967 as well as leading

mainstream doves opposed a Palestinian state. Fearing

diplomatic pressures, Israel maneuvered to sabotage thetwo-state settlement. It conducted punitive military raids

deliberately out o proportion against Palestinian and

Lebanese civilians in order to weaken PLO moderates,

strengthen the hand o Araats radical rivals, and guar-

antee the PLOs inexibility. However, Israel eventually

had to choose between a pair o stark options: a political

move leading to a historic compromise with the PLO, or

preemptive military action against it. To end o Araats

peace oensiveYanivs telling phraseIsrael embarked

on military action in June 1982. The Israeli invasion had

been preceded by more than a year o eective ceasefre

with the PLO, but ater murderous Israeli provocations,

the last o which let as many as 200 civilians dead (in-

cluding 60 occupants o a Palestinian childrens hospital),

the PLO fnally retaliated, causing a single Israeli casualty.

Although Israel used the PLOs resumption o attacks as the

pretext or its invasion, Yaniv concluded that the raison

dtre o the entire operation was destroying the PLO

as a political orce capable o claiming a Palestinian state

on the West Bank. It deserves passing notice that in his

new history o the peace process, Martin Indyk, ormer

U.S. ambassador to Israel, provides this capsule summary

o the sequence o events just narrated: In 1982, Araats

terrorist activities eventually provoked the Israeli govern-

ment o Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon into a ull-scale

invasion o Lebanon.

Fast orward to 2008. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi

Livni stated in early December 2008 that although Israel

wanted to create a temporary period o calm with Hamas,an extended truce harms the Israeli strategic goal, empow-

ers Hamas, and gives the impression that Israel recognizes

the movement. Translation: a protracted ceasefre that

enhanced Hamass credibility would have undermined

Israels strategic goal o retaining control o the West Bank.

As ar back as March 2007 Israel had decided on attacking

Hamas, and only negotiated the June truce because the

Israeli army needed time to prepare. Once all the pieces

were in place, Israel only lacked a pretext. On 4 Novem-

ber, while the American media were riveted on election

day, Israel broke the ceasefre by killing seven Palestinian

militants, on the imsy excuse that Hamas was digging

a tunnel to abduct Israeli soldiers, and knowing ull well

that its operation would provoke Hamas into hitting back.

Last weeks ticking tunnel, dug ostensibly to acilitate the

abduction o Israeli soldiers, Haaretz reported in mid-

November was not a clear and present danger: Its existence

was always known and its use could have been prevented

on the Israeli side, or at least the soldiers stationed beside

it removed rom harms way. It is impossible to claim that

those who decided to blow up the tunnel were simply be-

ing thoughtless. The military establishment was aware o

the immediate implications o the measure, as well as o



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the act that the policy o controlled entry into a narrow

area o the Strip leads to the same place: an end to the lull.

That is policynot a tactical decision by a commander on

the ground.

Ater Hamas predictably resumed its rocket attacks [i]

n retaliation (Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Inorma-tion Center), Israel could embark on yet another murder-

ous invasion in order to oil yet another Palestinian peace

oensive.

Norman G. Finkelstein

New York City

19 January 2009

For Full Article with Citations please download the ull

document in Microsot Word Format: http://www.norman-

fnkelstein.com/docs/PalestinianPeaceOensive.doc

Reprinted with permission rom Norman Finkelstein.

The Gospel o Redistribution?by Matthew Wappett

The oundations o the U.S. welare system were laid

by FDR during the waning years o the Great Depression.

But, what many dont know is that this system o welare

was directly modeled upon the Mormon Churchs welare

work in the early 20th century. According to a 2008 radio

piece on NPR by Ken Verdoia, the Church developed a

very progressive social welare system in the 1930s that

became the envy o the New Deal. Roosevelt administration

people were sent out to Salt Lake City to study the Mormon

Church's welare system or caring or its own.1 Thus, the

welare system we have in the U.S. today is partially mod-

eled on the visionary welare work o the Church and it

has served a worthwhile and important purpose as a saetynet or those in need during troubled economic times, and

or those unable to participate in the market economy as a

result o age, disability, or amily circumstance.

The recent election saw many react negatively to ideas

about redistribution and socialized programs, and yet

most charitable programs including Medicaid, Medicare,

ood stamps, and Social Security are meant to serve as

agents o redistributing limited goods to those in need

to equalize outcomes and opportunity. But unortunately

within recent years we have seen signifcant steps taken

at the state and national levels to dismantle these social

support programs. Indeed, some might say that the doc-

trine o fscal conservatism has trumped the doctrine o

charity. Many Mormons within the conservative movement

are still spouting anachronistic, Cold War era warnings

about socialism and commies running our country

without truly examining our spiritual heritage which laid

the oundation or some o the most socialized programs

to operate on U.S. soil.

The Church has a long history o progressive, socialized

welare policies that go back well beyond the early 20th

century, with intimations o such systems at the time o

Christs visit to the Nephite peoples in Mesoamerica some

The Gospel of Redistribution?


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2,000 years ago. We learn in several places in the Book o

Mormon that within Nephite society, when all things were

held equal, the people were richly blessed and there was

no contention among them.

For example in Alma 16:16 we read: there was no in-

equality among them; the Lord did pour out his Spirit on allthe ace o the land to prepare the minds o the children o

men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which

should be taught among them at the time o his coming.

Later on ollowing Christs visit we learn that the Nephites

had all things common among them, every man dealing

justly, one with another (3 Nephi 26:19) and they had

all things common among them; thereore there were not

rich and poor, bond and ree, but they were all made ree,

and partakers o the heavenly git (4 Nephi 1:3). On the

other side o the coin, we also learn rom 3 Nephi that the

downall o the Nephite civilization prior to Christs visit

was caused by the great inequality in the land:

And the people began to be distinguished by ranks,according to their riches and their chances or learning;

yea, some were ignorant because o their poverty, and

others did receive great learning because o their riches.

Some were lited up in pride, and others were exceedingly

humble; some did return railing or railing, while others

would receive railing and persecution and all manner o

aictions, and would not turn and revile again, but were

humble and penitent beore 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 amiliar chord with me as I have seen students

drop out o school because o their inability to pay, as Ive

heard riends rail against the poor and oppressed o so-

ciety, as Ive seen more and more class distinctions being

made within our country. Upon reading these scriptures

it seems to me that the Spirit o 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 o class, equality, and welare are



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also addressed and expanded upon in the revelations re-

ceived by Joseph Smith, and contained in the Doctrine and

Covenants (D&C). The frst mention o equality in the D&C

comes in Section 51, verse 3 where the Lord says: Where-

ore, let my servant Edward Partridge, and those whom he

has chosen, in whom I am well pleased, appoint unto thispeople their portions, every man equal according to his

amily, according to his circumstances and his wants and

needs. That sounds an awul lot like the redistribution

o wealth doesnt it? It sounds very similar to the equality

that we read about in the Book or Mormon.

Later in D&C Section 70, verse 14 the Lord says: Nev-

ertheless, in your temporal things you shall be equal, and

this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance o the mani-

estations o the Spirit shall be withheld. The Lord goes on

to say that, i ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot

be equal in obtaining heavenly things (D&C 78:6). Then

later in Section 82 the Lord establishes the United Order as

a covenant among the Saints in Kirtland and gives Joseph

Smith the ollowing commandment:

Thereore, I give unto you this commandment, that ye

bind yourselves by this covenant, and it shall be done ac-

cording to the laws o the Lord. Behold, here is wisdom also

in me or your good. And you are to be equal, or in other

words, you are to have equal claims on the properties, or

the beneft o managing the concerns o your stewardships,

every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch

as his wants are just And all this or the beneft o the

church o the living God, that every man may improve

upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea,

even an hundred old, to be cast into the Lords storehouse,

to become the common property o the whole church

Every man seeking the interest o his neighbor, and doing

all things with an eye single to the glory o God. This or-

der I have appointed to be an everlasting order unto you,and unto your successors, inasmuch as you sin not. And

the soul that sins against this covenant, and hardeneth his

heart against it, shall be dealt with according to the laws

o my church, and shall be delivered over to the buetings

o Satan until the day o redemption (D&C 82:15-21).

In this particular passage o scripture we learn that the

Lord bound his people with a covenant that they were to

be equal, like in the Book o Mormon, and that this equal-

ity was achieved by casting all properties and talents into

the Lords storehouse where they were to be used or the

common good. There was also a tremendous promise that

went along with this covenant and a price or those who

sinned against this covenant by hardening their hearts

against it; but selfshness is a common human trait and we

have a tendency to covet what is ours whether it is money,

land, or possessions. This selfshness eventually suraces

in Section 104 where we learn o the United Order be-

ing reorganized because o the covenants being broken

through transgression, by covetousness and eigned words

(D&C 104:52).

Because o our human tendency towards psychological

egoism the United Order was eventually dissolved, but that

didnt absolve the Saints o their responsibility or seeking



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the interest o his neighbor (D&C 82:17), and as the Saints

prepared to cross the plains, the Lord revisits the notion

o redistributing resources and responsibility as a means

o protecting and nurturing the weak and marginalized

o society: Let each company bear an equal proportion,

according to the dividend o their property, in taking thepoor, the widows, the atherless, and the amilies o those

who have gone into the army, that the cries o the widow

and the atherless come not up into the ears o the Lord

against this people (D&C 136:8). Thus the Lord seems to

understand that some level o redistribution is necessary to

achieve equality o means and ends. The Lord also seems

to indicate that redistribution doesnt just mean material

things, but that every person has a responsibility to watch

and care or the weak and oppressed. Indeed we still live

by this covenant when we promise to consecrate our time,

talents, and everything we are blessed with to the building

o the Kingdom o God.

Now, I know that there will be those who eel that I am

interpreting these scriptures too broadly. They will likely

argue that this structure o governance was intended or

within the Church and among those who had entered into

the covenant only; that those outside o the covenant, in-

cluding government, cant possibly be bound by the same

spiritual laws, and yet I believe that we must have more

aith in our ellow man. Indeed when it comes to welare

and charity I believe that we need to once again look to the

example o Christ or the answer to this quandary. Christ

did not discriminate. Christ taught the Samaritan woman

at the well about the living water o the gospel (John

4:10-11), and raised the ire o the Pharisees when he drew

near unto him all the publicans and sinners or to hear him.

And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man

receiveth sinners, and eateth with them (Luke 15:1-2) an

action that was taboo among orthodox Jewish society othe time. Christ welcomed all, nurtured all, and rejected

none...thereore I fnd it hard to believe that Christ would

only say that this responsibility or charity, or even the

responsibility to give unto each (redistribute?) as his/her

needs dictate is the sole privilege o Church members. In-

deed much o the welare aid rom the Church today goes

to individuals who are not members o the Church, but

who are nevertheless in need.

The act that the Church engages in this interdenomi-

national welare does not relieve us o our responsibility to

do the same within our neighborhoods, cities, counties, or

country. We should try to accomplish the same mission o

caring or the underprivileged through secular institutions,

including government, as well as through the institution o

the Church. Many argue it is immoral or the government

to orcibly take rom those who have wealth and give it to

those who dont. Though I am certainly sympathetic to the

act that government robs us through taxation, caring or

the needy is the one use o our tax money I wouldnt object

to. Those who are opposed to the government taxing us to

help the poor, never seem to complain when the govern-

ment does the same to build roads, or parks, or museums,

or whats more, tanks, or bombers, or nuclear weapons, or



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to und going to war against nations who have never at-

tacked us, such as Vietnam or Iraq. These undertakings are

not given priority in scripture, and in the case o oensive

war, are even condemned. In contrast, helping the needy

is a clear commandment.

From what I understand in the scriptures, there is novirtue that is o more everlasting value than the virtue o

charity. In Colossians Paul gives us a laundry list o vir-

tues and duties, but concludes by saying: And above all

these things put on charity, which is the bond o perect-

ness. (Colossians 3:14). Moroni is a little more explicit

when discussing charity: And except ye have charity ye

can in nowise be saved in the kingdom o God (Moroni

10:21). Thus charity, both the action and the attitude, are

pivotal to our overall salvation. Unortunately many see

charity, both the attitude and the action, as a burden and

promote policies and attitudes that are harmul to those

in need. We are living in a day when Solomons words in

Proverbs have indeed come true: The poor is hated even

o his own neighbour: but the rich hath many riends.

(Proverbs 14:20).

We live in a society that praises and rewards selfshness.

The oundations o the American system o ree enterprise

are based upon the notion that the pursuit o individual

wealth and power works to the good o the whole o society;

a paradoxical notion at best, and an excuse or the most egre-

gious behavior at worst. We live in a country and culture

that encourages egoism and accumulation. It is something

that many seem to aspire to. It is behavior that is entirely

antithetical to

Christs teach-

ing that i we

are to be per-

ect, go and

sell that thouhast, and give

to the poor,

and thou shalt

have treasure

in heaven: and come and ollow me (Matthew 19:21).

In conclusion, I do not believe that democracy needs

to be synonymous with a capitalist economic system. I

look to the many democratic socialist countries in Europe

and see great hope or the world there. I do not believe

that the wisdom o the masses, democracy, can peaceully

coexist with an economic system that is based upon the

pursuit o proft and each individuals sel interest. We

cannot have a system o government that is meant to serve

the common good while we have a personal, social, and

economic ethic ounded upon principles o psychological

egoism. Similarly, we cannot believe in the divine origin

o man and the earth and then participate in a culture and

economy that views people and the earth as a means. Man

and the earth are o divine origin and thus are an end in,

and o, themselves...they should not, and cannot, be used

as a medium or achieving proft, prestige, or privilege. I

believe that we cannot sit idly by and take the world as it

comes to us. I believe that we have a divine calling to take



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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

better than we ound it. This is a principle that I learned

rom my ather many years ago in the White Mountains

north o Fairbanks. When we would ski and snowmachineinto the BLM cabins in that priceless wilderness we would

requently fnd the cabins bare o frewood. We would end

up travelling down the trail, otentimes several miles to

gather wood to heat the cabins. At the end o our stay we

would do exactly the same thing; we would spend our last

morning cutting frewood. We would haul the wood back

to the cabin, chop kindling, stack kindling and wood inside

the cabin, and bank the fre in the wood stove to ensurethe cabin was ready or the next visitors. My ather would

always reiterate that it was our responsibility to leave the

cabin better than we ound it. I believe in this principle.

I thank my ather or teaching it to me through example. I

believe we must all make every eort to leave the world

better than we ound it. I hope that my comments will

serve as a reminder o the wider social role that the Gos-

pel should, and must, play in our lives. Let us take virtue,

charity, love, and peace into the world. Let us be hopeul

and kind. Let us be examples o the believers.

1. Mormons Take Care o their Own, Marketplace,

October 3, 2008. Accessed online at: http://marketplace.

publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/mormon_wel-

are/

When is Violence Justifed?The Curious Case o Sgt. Hassan Akbarby Cli Burton

On April 28th 2005, a military judge sentenced US Army

Sgt. Hasan Akbar to death or the murder o two o his

ellow soldiers. Prosecutors allege that, while stationed in

Kuwait, during the frst days o the US invasion o Iraq in

2003, Akbar stole seven grenades rom a Humvee, and threw

them into the tent o Army Capt. Christopher Seiert and

Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, killing both and wounding

several others.The Chie prosecutor in the case, Lt. Col. Michael Mul-

ligan, contended that Akbar killed his two comrades be-

cause he is a hate-flled, ideologically driven murderer.1

Apparently the judge agreed.

Mulligans characterization o Akbar fts well with the

general US government view o the so-called War on Ter-

ror. Theyre the bad guys, were the good guys. Either you

love reedom (meaning youre with the US) or youre a

terrorist (youre against the US). When we kill people its

or a valid reason (sel-deense, democracy), when they

kill people its or no good reason (they are hate-flled,

ideologically driven murderers).

I you take a closer look however, the validity o the

US paradigm quickly breaks down. There are other op-

tions besides being a supporter o the US on the one hand,

When is Violence Justified? The Curious Case of Sgt. Hassan Akbar

RETURNTO ARTICLE
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/mormon_welfare/http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/mormon_welfare/http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/mormon_welfare/http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/mormon_welfare/http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/mormon_welfare/http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/mormon_welfare/


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or a supporter o Al-Qaeda on the other. For example, a

BBC poll taken in September 2007 showed that some 57%

o Iraqis supported attacks on US troops in Iraq, while

exactly 0% o Iraqis polled supported Al-Qaeda attacks

against civilians.2So despite President Bush declaring,

You're either with us or against us in the fght againstterror, most Iraqis are neither.3They dont support the

U.S. occupation o their country, with all the bombings,

shootings, detentions, torture, and sectarian divisions that

come with it, nor do they support the presence o Al-Qaeda

in their country, with the bombings, shootings, torture,

sectarianism, and religious extremism that comes with it.

Instead, most Iraqis view violence just like the rest o us.

It is justifed in sel-deense, to protect the innocent, todeend their religion, and to ree themselves rom tyranny

(whether at the hands o Saddam or the Americans). They

eel that violence against occupying soldiers is justifed

while violence against civilians is not. Strangely most o

these reasons ft quite well with the basic guidelines on the

use o violence as outlined in international law (violence

is justifed in sel-deense and against oreign occupiers).

Seeing the War on Terror rom this new paradigm

helps us reevaluate the case o Sgt. Akbar. Why did he

carry out the attack? As an Arican-American convert to

Islam and member o the US Army which was then in

the process o invading Iraq, Akbar had essentially three

courses o action. He could 1) participate in the invasion,

and thereby participate in killing innocent, ellow Muslims,

2) he could desert rom the Army, and while not participat-

ing in the killing himsel, allow his Army comrades to kill

innocent, ellow Muslims, or 3) he could attack his ellow

soldiers and try to prevent them rom killing innocent,

ellow Muslims.

Fox News reports that such a dilemma was on Akbars

mind, citing an entry in Akbars diary, "I may not have killedany Muslims, but being in the Army is the same thing. I

may have to make a choice very soon on who to kill. . . I

will have to decide to kill my Muslim brothers fghting or

Saddam Hussein or my battle buddies.4

Its clear which path Akbar fnally decided to take. Fox

News reports that Prosecutors say Akbar launched the at-

tack at his camp days beore the soldiers were to move

into Iraq because he was concerned about U.S. troopskilling ellow Muslims in the Iraq war.5 Fox News report-

ed urther that Sgt. Eric Tanner, a brigade legal assistant,

testifed that Akbar told a major that, I did it because I'm

Muslim. They were going to kill Muslims and rape Muslim

women.6

Another Fox News article mentions that, Deense

attorneys have said Akbar was especially worried about

talk among soldiers concerning alleged plans to rape Iraqi

women. The deense had the jury hear a diary entry o

Akbar overhearing such talk.7

Though it is unclear how many instances have taken

place where US soldiers have raped Iraqi women, some

cases have become public, lending credibility to Akbars

ears at the outset o the invasion. For example, the Asso-

ciated Press reported in July 2006 on the rape trial o Pvt.Steven D. Green:



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According to a 10-page ederal afdavit, Green and

three other soldiers rom the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 101st

Airborne Division had talked about raping the young [Iraqi]

woman, whom they frst saw while working at the check-

point. On the day o the attack, the document said, Green

and other soldiers drank alcohol and changed out o theiruniorms to avoid detection beore going to the woman's

house. Green covered his ace with a brown T-shirt. Once

there, the afdavit said, Green took three members o the

amily an adult male and emale, and a girl estimated to

be 5 years old into a bedroom, ater which shots were

heard rom inside. Green came to the bedroom door and

told everyone, I just killed them. All are dead, the afda-

vit said. The afdavit is based on interviews conducted bythe FBI and military investigators with three unidentifed

soldiers assigned to Green's platoon. Two o the soldiers

said they witnessed another soldier and Green rape the

woman.8

To be air, Akbar was also upset at some o his ellow

soldiers or the way they treated him. His diary states, I

suppose they want to punk me or just humiliate me. Per-

haps they eel that I will not do anything about that. They

are right about that. I am not going to do anything about it

as long as I stay here. But as soon as I am in Iraq, I am go-

ing to try and kill as many o them as possible.9 The Fox

News articles do not detail what Akbars ellow soldiers

did to punk or humiliate him.

So while anger or his own mistreatment seems to have

been a motive or the killing, the desire to protect his ellow

Muslims rom being killed or raped in an unprovoked US

invasion was nevertheless prominent in Akbars decision to

carry out the attack. In act i Akbar was trying to prevent

the killing o his ellow Muslims, he may have had some

success. Fox News summarized the comments o Col. Ben

Hodges, who was himsel wounded in Akbar's attack, asollows: Akbar's attack took out o action key personnel

responsible or planning troop movements [during the

invasion]. He said that resulted in the brigade being slow

to isolate the city o Naja, allowing some Iraqi fghters to

escape.10 Though most Americans have little sympathy

or members o the Iraqi army, simply considering them

Saddams evil agents, in act the Iraqi military was ull o

regular Iraqis who were orced to join the army as con-scripts. Their lives are worth something too.

In reviewing the circumstances behind Sgt. Akbars

March 23rd 2003 attack, given his realistic assumption that

the US Army was killing many innocent Muslims during

the invasion (Some 100,000 were killed in the invasion ac-

cording to a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal)

and that Muslim women would likely be raped, a more

sympathetic picture o the man emerges. In act, his ac-

tions appear quite reasonable. It is human nature to want

to protect and deend members o ones own amily, tribe,

nation, or religious group rom the aggression o outsid-

ers. Because Akbar identifed more strongly as a Muslim

than as an American, and because it was the Americans

committing aggression against Iraqis, not the other way

around, he considered it a responsibility to protect his



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ellow Muslims rom the US attack.

As Mormons, we should eel additional sympathy or

Hasan Akbar given our own religious history. Every Mor-

mon child learns the story rom the Book o Mormon o

Captain Moroni, who raised the title o liberty and deended

the Nephite people rom the invading Lamanite Armies.The Book o Mormon states that Captain Moroni and the

Nephite people were inspired by a better cause, or they

were not fghting or monarchy nor power but they were

fghting or their homes and their liberties, their wives and

their children and their all, yea, or their rites o worship

and their church (Alma 43:45).

Ironically, since the Bush administration, like the wick-

ed King Amalickiah, did stir up the American people toanger against the people o Iraq, through lies and distor-

tions, many American soldiers elt they were fghting or

the same noble reasons Akbar ought or. Many US soldiers

that invaded Iraq thought they were deending their ami-

lies by preventing the perpetrators o 9/11 rom striking

again, when in act the Iraqi regime had nothing to do with

that crime. Instead, these soldiers participated in a crime

o their own against the people o Iraq, who in act were

no threat to them or their amilies. Thinking they were

doing whats right, these soldiers ound themselves in the

position o the Lamanite warriors, who had been misled

by their rulers into fghting a war o conquest (Alma 47:1).

This makes the death o every US soldier in Iraq all the

more heartbreaking.

The tragic case o Hasan Akbar teaches us some im-

portant lessons. First, it is important that we ollow the

lead o the majority o Iraqis and not buy into the Bush

administrations alse paradigm which encourages us to

think there are only two sides in the conict. There is a

third side, those who are against terror regardless o who

perpetrates it, whether its the US government bombing,invading, and occupying countries, or whether its Al-Qaeda

blowing up market places. We need to be skeptical o those

in power, and question our leaders beore allowing them

to send us o to kill in oreign lands. Finally, its critical

that we make an eort to understand the actions o our

enemies, o people like Hasan Akbar. Some o our current

enemies certainly are hate-flled ideologically driven mur-

derers. However, others are simply deending themselvesand their religion and their amilies rom the violence o

the power-hungry ideologically driven murderers that

were in our own White House. I we dont consider the

violent resistance o people like Hasan Akbar legitimate,

what use o violence ever is? Maybe in some cases our

supposed enemies should really be our riends, and our

supposed riends, including our generals and politicians,

our enemies.

1. Army Sergeant to be Tried in Grenade Attack. Fox-

news.com, March 4, 2004. Accessed online at: http://www.

oxnews.com/story/0,2933,113277,00.html

2. Iraq Poll September 2007 or BBC and ABC News.

Accessed online at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/

hi/pds/10_09_07_iraqpollaug2007_ull.pd


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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/

4. GI Wrote About Killing, Foxnews.com, April 15,

2005. Accessed online at: http://www.oxnews.com/sto-

ry/0,2933,153490,00.html5. Akbar Sentenced to Death or Grenade Attack, Fox-

news.com, April 29, 2005. Accessed online at: http://www.


6. Witness: Soldier Admitted to Grenade Attack, Fox-

news.com, May 24, 2004. Accessed online at: http://www.



2005. Accessed online at: http://www.oxnews.com/sto-ry/0,2933,153490,00.html

8. Ex-GI Accused in Rape o Iraqi, Killings, By Tom

Whitmire, Associated Press, July 4, 2006 and printed in

the Washington Post. Accessed online at: http://www.

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/03/

AR2006070300399.html


2005. Accessed online at: http://www.oxnews.com/sto-

ry/0,2933,153490,00.html

10. Witness: Akbar Attack Compromised Iraq War,

Foxnews.com, April 25, 2005. Accessed online at: http://

www.oxnews.com/story/0,2933,154529,00.html

Abrahams One Percent Doctrine andthe Criminal U.S. Assault on Fallujahby Joshua Madson

In the books o Matthew and Luke there is this radical

statement rom John the Baptist, do not presume to say

to yourselves, We have Abraham as our ather, or I tell

you, God is able rom these stones to raise up children or

Abraham.1For centuries the Jewish people had considered

themselves chosen by virtue o their lineage. They claimed

lineage rom the great patriarch Abraham and with it the

covenant right to occupy Palestine. They considered them-selves a chosen nation written on Gods very hands. John,

like most prophets, challenged the very oundation o their

national and religious narrative. What made Israel chosen

or special i God could raise up children o Abraham rom

mere stones? In the last week o Jesus lie he taught what

it meant to be a child o Abraham and contrasted that with

the works o the devil, specifcally murder: I you were

Abrahams children, you would be doing the works Abra-

ham did... You are o your ather the devil, and your will

is to do your athers desires. He was a murderer rom the

beginning.2Jesus made clear that being a child o Abraham

was explicitly tied to our deeds and our desires. Jesus also

taught that murder is a work o the devil which stands in

stark contrast to compassion.

What are the works o Abraham and how can we be-

Abrahams One Percent Doctrine and the Criminal U.S. Assault on Fallujah

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come children o Abraham? Jewish, Islamic and Christian

traditions all revere Abraham and yet we rarely do his

works. Oten when we think o Abrahams works we think

o the Akedah or binding o Isaac. Certainly this is a sig-

nifcant event in Abrahams lie but there are also other

works we would do well to remember. From the very be-ginning, Abrahams great commission was to be a blessing

to all the amilies o the earth. Throughout Abrahams lie

he practiced hospitality with all those he came in contact

with. Perhaps the best illustration o Abrahams compas-

sion is his pleading on behal o the cities o Sodom and

Gomorrah.

Sodom and Gomorrah were the most wicked cities in

all o Canaan. The Book o Genesis relates that, The outcryagainst Sodom and Gomorrah was so great, and the sins

o their inhabitants so blatant, that God had to go down

to see it or himsel to believe it.3And yet when Abraham

learned the cities would be destroyed by fre, Abraham had

compassion and pled their cause. Unlike Vice President

Cheney, who advocates bombing and invading an entire

country or the sake o a ew evil men, Abraham knew that

i there were even a handul o innocents living in those

two cities, the cost o destroying them would be too high.

Abraham advocated vigorously with the Lord to save even

the wicked or the sake o the innocent. At some level we

must address the implications o Abrahams works towards

Sodom and Gomorrah. What does he tell us about the in-

nocent victims in war, about what the military has termed

collateral damage?

It is common or us to speak o the United States as

a chosen land. We oten hear it compared to a city on a

hill, a beacon o light, a nation ounded on Judeo-Christian

values. But we, like ancient Israel, orget that it is ones

desires and works that matter and not the narratives and

labels we give ourselves.In 2004, we again had the opportunity to choose whose

works we would do. The Iraqi city o Fallujah was the site

o the brutal murder o our American private security

workers who were burnt, dragged, and hung rom a bridge

over the Euphrates River. Fallujah had become synonymous

with the Iraqi insurgency, synonymous with everything

that was supposedly wrong about Iraq. Much like Sodom

and Gomorrah, it was considered by the US governmentand media as the most wicked city in the land. Lieutenant

Colonel Gary Brandl perhaps described our attitude best,

The enemy has got a ace. He's called Satan. He's in Fal-

luja. And we're going to destroy him.4However, unlike

with the case o Sodom and Gomorrah, there was no Abra-

ham in the US government, or i there was, his voice ell

on dea ears. There in the ancient homeland o the great

Abraham, the United States Military rained fre rom the

sky and committed one o the most brutal massacres o

the war to date.

In early April 2004, around 2,000 troops rom the US

1st Marine Expeditionary Force, supported by jet fghters

and attack helicopters, assaulted Fallujah in an eort to

deeat Sunni resistant groups there. As the urban battle

with resistance fghters and local residents wore on, the



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death toll began to mount. Doctors rom the local hospital

reported 600 Iraqi dead, most o them civilians, includ-

ing women and children.5The 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 or Mdecins sans Frontires,visited Falluja during the two week assault, and reported

that, "The Americans put a sniper position on top o the

hospital's water tower and had troops in the single-storey

building . . . The hospital had our operating theatres, which

could no longer be used. I they had been working, it would

have saved many lives.6A public relations disaster oc-

curred as images and video suraced resembling mass mur-

der rather than a battle. As the assault became increasinglyunpopular internationally, the Marines agreed to an uneasy

ceasefre, leaving the city outside their control, and setting

the stage or a second assault six months later.

The second U.S. assault on Fallujah, in November 2004,

was originally code named, appropriately, Thanksgiving

Massacre beore the British encouraged a more modest

name change to Phantom Fury.7 It began with nearly

two months o aerial attacks. The city was cordoned o,

and ood, water, and power were cut o in an eort to

put strain on the local population. Some 300,000 Fallujans

abandoned their homes and ed the city or saety, passing

through US military checkpoints. Contrary to the Geneva

Convention, any male under age 45 was denied exit and

orced back by gunpoint, while machine-gun nests killed

anyone who tried to escape across the Euphrates River.8


T M W I 6 Ab h O P D i d h C i i l U S A l F ll j h


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On November 18, 2004 some 12,000 troops invaded Fal-

lujah. In an eort to control inormation during the second

assault, the frst target o operation Phantom Fury was the

Fallujah hospital, because the US military believed it was

the source o rumors about heavy casualties [during the frst

assault]. It's a center o propaganda, a senior Americanofcer said.9The hospitals sta was captured and snip-

ers were positioned on the roos o hospitals once again.

The remaining population, unable to ee and consisting o

30,000 to 50,000 civilians, was considered enemy combat-

ants.10This means that the same measures the U.S. military

used to kill alleged insurgents (described urther below),

were inevitably used against civilians.

Houses, schools, and mosques were ravaged. Accordingto Fallujah's compensation commissioner, 36,000 o the

city's 50,000 homes were destroyed, along with 60 schools

and 65 mosques and shrines.11Fallujans were also illegally

denied medical treatment rom Iraqs Red Crescent.12 One

US commander described the rules o engagement: I you

see someone with a cell phone, put a bullet in their ---ing

head.13An AP photographer described US helicopters kill-

ing a amily o fve trying to ord a river to saety. "There

were American snipers on top o the hospital shooting

everyone. With no medical supplies, people died rom

their wounds.14

The attack against Fallujah was made even more hor-

rifc by the use o thermobaric weapons, white phosphorous,

and possibly an advanced orm o napalm.15One o the

weapons used by the marines was equipped with thermo-

baric warheads, also known as a uel-air weapon. This

weapon was specifcally designed to raze buildings. Fuel-Air

weapons are known or creating a cloud o volatile gases

which is then ignited and the subsequent freball sears

the surrounding area while consuming the oxygen in this

area. The lack o oxygen creates an enormous overpres-sure ... Personnel under the cloud are literally crushed to

death. Marines used these weapons to clear structures,

assuming anyone inside any house or building must be an

insurgent, ignoring the act that roughly 50,000 civilians

remained in the city.16

There is also evidence that white phosphorous was used

as a weapon and not solely or illumination as originally

stated by the US State Department. In act, the US StateDepartment later issued a correction noting that Field Ar-

tillery magazine revealed that white phosphorous had in

act been used as a potent psychological weapon against

the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes ....17This

was likely more than psychological, however, as accord-

ing to the BBC, anyone exposed to these weapons would

have experienced the ollowing: Phosphorus burns on the

skin are deep and painul... These weapons are particularly

nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until

it disappears... it could burn right down to the bone.18

To avoid such a ate, insurgents would have to leave their

ortifed positions, at which point they could be slaughtered

by conventional U.S. attacks. Field Artillery describes how

Marines, fred shake and bake missions at the insurgents,

using [White Phosphorous] to ush them out and [High


6T M W I 6 Ab h O P D i d h C i i l U S A l F ll j h
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Explosives] to take them out.19

Beore the invasion o Fallujah, Sgt. Maj. Carlton W.

Kent spoke o the coming battle o Fallujah as being no

dierent than the capture o the ancient city o Hue dur-

ing the 1968 Tet Oensive in Viet Nam. You're all in the

process o making history. This is another Hue city in themaking. I have no doubt, i we do get the word, that each

and every one o you is going to do what you have always

done kick some butt.20

Perhaps, when we remember wars we should do as Kurt

Vonnegut suggested we should take o our clothes and

paint ourselves blue and go on all ours all day long and

grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than

noble oratory and shows o ags and well-oiled guns.21How many innocents does it take in a Fallujah beore we

reuse to destroy it? Abraham was willing to spare Sodom

and Gomorrah or a handul o innocents and yet we are

willing to engage in the barbarism o the highest order; in-

nocents be damned. What does the destruction o Fallujah

say about our nation, our narrative, and our city on a hill?

Who is our ather i we cannot even approach the works

o Abraham?

1. Matthew 3:9

2. John 8:39-47

3. Genesis 18:20-21

4. Paul Wood, Fixing the problem o Falluja BBC,

November 7, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_

east/3989639.stm

5. Rory Mcarthy, Uneasy Truce in the City o Ghosts,

Guardian, April 24, 2004. http://www.guardian.co.uk/

world/2004/apr/24/iraq.rorymccarthy

6. Rory Mcarthy, Uneasy Truce in the City o

Ghosts.

7. Sarah Sands Our troops' lie in Basra: smile, shoot,smile?, Telegraph, December 24, 2004. http://www.tele-

graph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/1479738/

Our-troops-lie-in-Basra-smile-shoot-smile.html

8. Reuters Dispatch, November 5, 2004

9. Richard Oppel and Robert Worth, G.I.'s Open At-

tack to Take Falluja From Iraq Rebels, New York Times,

November 8, 2004. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/

international/middleeast/08alluja.html10. George Monbiot, Behind the Phosphorus Clouds

are War Crimes within War Crimes, The Guardian, No-

vember 22 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/

nov/22/usa.iraq1

11. Mike Marqusee, A name that lives in inamy The

Guardian, November 10 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/

world/2005/nov/10/usa.iraq

12. George Monbiot, Behind the phosphorus

13. Newsweek, Probing Bloodbath. Evan Thomas and

Scoot Johnson, June 12, 2006 http://www.newsweek.com/

id/52312

14. Marqusee, A name that lives in inamy

Documents

The Mormon Worker - Issue 6 - Mar 09