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Hoping the long war is soon ancient history

01 Mar 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

God's patient waiting is highlighted in this Sunday's reading from the First Letter of Peter. After waiting patiently for six years, the people of Baghdad celebrated the reopening of their beloved National Museum Monday. Looters had carried away priceless antiquities while American troops largely stood by in the chaos following the U.S. invasion of Iraq. At the time Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had famously dismissed the looting by saying, "Stuff happens." Though the museum has been reopened on a restricted basis, well over half the exhibition halls are still closed. Thousands of works from its collection of antiquities and art-some of civilization's earliest objects-remain lost. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki pushed to reopen the museum-against the advice of his own culture ministry-as a sign of Iraqi progress. "It was a rugged wave and strong black wind that passed over Iraq, and one of the results was the destruction that hit this cultural icon," Maliki declared in a dedication ceremony that was shrouded in dispute and secrecy until the last minute. "We have stopped this black wind, and we have resumed the process of reconstruction." Welcoming diplomats as a bagpipe ensemble played in the garden outside, Iraq's minister of state for tourism and antiquities, Qahtan al-Jibouri, said Iraq wanted visitors "to see that Baghdad is still the same as it was in their eyes and has not turned to ruins, as the enemies of life wanted." Museum workers who witnessed the looting and endured a closing of nearly six years were elated simply to have company again in what for years were deserted galleries. "You can tell by our faces how we feel," said Thamir Rajab, a conservation specialist, beaming as he pointed out several of his favorite sculptures. The staff learned two months ago that the museum would reopen in February. It then crammed two years' work into those two months, Rajab said. "We did the best we could," he explained, wistful that the museum remained less than what it once was. "This is what we could do now. God willing, one day we will do more." Source: An article by Steven Lee Myers for the New York Times

iraq baghdad national museum nuri al-maliki qahtan al-jibouri thamir rajab
U.S. officials hunker down, downsize Iraq embassy

12 Feb 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Book of Leviticus this Sunday says that the person who is declared unclean “shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.” A mere two years after opening a $750-million-dollar embassy in Iraq--the largest in the world--U.S. State Department officials and contractors increasingly find themselves isolated, confined to the embassy because of security concerns and frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism. As a result, fewer than two months after American troops left Iraq, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining American influence in the country. Envisioned and built by the George W. Bush Administration, the expansive diplomatic operation was billed as necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between the two countries. Officials spent more than a year planning the expansion, and many of the thousands of additional personnel have only recently arrived. The sudden realization that the diplomatic buildup and its $6 billion annual price tag were ill-advised and need to be scaled back represents a remarkable turnaround. After the last U.S. troops departed in December, life became more difficult for the thousands of diplomats and contractors left behind. Convoys of food that had been escorted by the U.S. military from Kuwait were delayed at border crossings when Iraqis demanded documentation that the Americans were unaccustomed to providing. At every turn, the Americans say, the Iraqi government has interfered with the activities of the diplomatic mission, one the U.S. acknowledges the Iraqis never asked for or agreed upon. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office--and sometimes even the prime minister himself--now must approve visas for all Americans, resulting in lengthy delays. American diplomats have had trouble setting up meetings with Iraqi officials. For their part, Iraqis say they are simply enforcing their laws and protecting their sovereignty in the absence of a working agreement with the U.S. on the embassy. “We always knew that what [U.S. officials] were planning to do [with the embassy] didn’t make sense,” said Kenneth M. Pollack of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. “It’s increasingly becoming clear that they are horribly overstaffed given what they are able to accomplish.” Source: An article by Tim Arango for the New York Times

iraq nuri al-maliki state department kenneth m pollack embassy
Is Iraq unraveling?

22 Jun 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the reading from 1 Corinthians this Corpus Christi Sunday, Saint Paul expresses the unity underlying the diverse gathering of believers who constituted the early church: “We, though many, are one body.” The vision of diverse sectarian groups working together democratically in an united Iraq unraveled with stunning speed this past week as Sunni extremists overran northern and western Iraq.Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki struck a defiant note in a televised address, insisting that Iraqi authorities "will win" despite the setbacks of the past week, during which Iraqi security forces crumbled in Mosul, the nation’s second largest city, and elsewhere before the militants' advance.Iraq's military claimed Wednesday to have driven back militants who stormed the country's main oil refinery in the town of Baiji, the latest front in the battle for control of swaths of Iraq. Iraqi forces killed 40 militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, said Iraqi military spokesman Gen. Qasem Atta. Baiji is 140 miles north of Baghdad, the capital.On Wednesday President Barack Obama huddled with congressional leaders on the question of whether the United States should intervene. The administration faces some tough choices. Obama has ruled out ground troops. Airstrikes remain under consideration.Over the past week or so ISIS militants have pressed forward, gobbling up large chunks of territory. They have racked up several significant victories, including Tal Afar, Mosul, and two villages in the Diyala province. The ISIS militants are Sunni Muslims and claim to have killed at least 1,700 Shiites since launching their offensive. Hundreds of thousands have fled, prompting fears of a humanitarian crisis.In their advance through Iraq, the militants have had support from Sunni tribes and militia angered by al-Maliki and his Shia-led government, which they accuse of marginalizing Sunni concerns.In Baghdad a national unity meeting of Sunni and Shiite leaders sought to calm rising tensions. The meeting late Tuesday followed intense pressure from the Obama administration on al-Maliki to do more to reach out to his political foes if he wants to receive more assistance from the United States in the fight against ISIS.Homily hint: Humanity seems to find endless justifications for strife and division. Can we be as creative in finding paths to peace and toleration? We can no longer afford the “luxury” of not getting along—the world shrinks daily as we become ever more interdependent. Sources: Articles by Laura Smith-Spark, Ed Payne, and Nic Robertson for CNN, Hamza Hendawi andQassim Abdul Zahra for the Associated Press, and Liz Sly and Loveday Morris for the Washington Post

iraq nuri al-maliki islamic state in iraq and syria