"Becoming Intimate with War" by Robert Rabbin

Thanks to the firestorm of breathtaking imagesat long lastAmerica is becoming intimate with war.

May 15, 2004--Thanks to the firestorm of breathtaking imagesat long lastAmerica is becoming intimate with war. I cannot remember the exact timeline of events, but the past few weeks have ripped apart the Bush Administrations linguistically neutered and sanitized representation of the Iraqi invasion and occupationwhat they call Operation Iraqi Freedom. America is now traveling the gruesome distance from Administration salon word games and ivory tower fantasies to rape, torture, and murder; from war sloganeering and political posturing to the names and faces of the dead; from the emotionless swagger of Donald Rumsfelds press briefings to the horror and grief of an outraged world.

We see rows of American flag-draped caskets, whose pictures were prohibited by Bush Administration policies. On Nightline, Ted Koppel shows us the names and faces of the American soldiers killed in the invasion and occupationas the number edges towards 1,000. And then, Abu Grahib. The pictures and as yet unseen videos do not require words. The pictures cannot be undone by words. The pictures will not be silenced by words. The pictures cannot be edited by words; they cannot be modified or formatted to fit the screen of obfuscation and denial.

And yet with all this, the true picture is still fuzzy and out of focus. If we are going to listen to a war president then we must also see what war isand not the war that is discussed and debated in the halls of Congress and on television talk shows. We must see the actual war, not the metaphorical war. We must see the war that has faces and bodies and spirits, not the war of ideologies and abstractions and misguided patriotic fevers.

We have not seen the war that has taken the lives of 10,000 Iraqi civilians. We have not seen the war that has wounded thousands more. We have not seen the war of hospitals filled with children. We have not seen nor heard the sorrows, fears, and wailings of thousands and thousands of people in whose souls our bombs and missiles and bullets will ricochet for years without end. We have not seen these things. We do not hear those who exalt and celebrate war speak of these things. We do not see those who dress up in war costumes showing these things.

If these things are the actual cost of war, then we should see them. We should become very intimate with the human dimensions of war as the war is happening, in real time. Every American must weigh the rhetoric of war against the body count of war. Every American must let the full force and scope of war fill their heart with actual images and sounds and smells. We must demand to know, to see, and to feel all the tragedy and sickness of war in its most graphic and uncensored realism.

And then, perhaps, we will decide to end this war, and future wars. Perhaps we will decide that we need a peace president. Perhaps we will stand before the world and say we were wrong, that we are wrong, and that we will stop what is wrong. Perhaps, with enough intimacy, we will.

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Robert Rabbin is a writer and speaker with a passion for radically engaged spiritual wisdom. He recently created TruthForPresident.org, a revolutionary news service whose purpose is to elevate the political consciousness and dialogue in America. For more info: www.truthforpresident.org.