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The hopes and fears of all the year

28 Dec 2008 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Nearly two years ago, in April 2007, an undergraduate art student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago unveiled a papier-mache sculpture of Barack Obama as a messianic figure, titled "Blessing." David Cordero, 24, made the sculpture for his senior show after noticing all the attention Obama had received since first hinting he might run for the presidency. Run Obama did, and win he did, and his election was overwhelmingly voted the top news story of the year by U.S. editors and news directors polled by the Associated Press. But as we prepare to celebrate the Savior's birth, Obama must contend with the almost messianic-like hope that many people hold for his presidency. Artist Cordero's explanation for creating his sculpture may prove a healthy cautionary tale: "All of this is a response to what I've been witnessing and hearing, this idea that Barack is sort of a potential savior that might come and absolve the country of all its sins. In a lot of ways it's about caution in assigning all these inflated expectations on one individual, and expecting them to change something that many hands have shaped." As Obama prepares to take office in a few weeks, he inherits a number of daunting challenges not of his own creation, not least of which is the nation's financial meltdown-voted the number-two story of the year in the AP poll. Obama will also be handed the long-running war in Iraq, another top-ten story of the year, not to mention the even longer-running war in Afghanistan. If that were not enough, the U.S. as well as other nations face the ongoing threat of terrorism, as demonstrated by another top story, the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai, India that killed 164 people. The historic political campaigns of two women-Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin-also made the list of top-ten news stories. Though their campaigns were not victorious, both women finished the year with their political futures intact-Clinton as Obama's choice for U.S. Secretary of State, and Palin as a leading light of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. China and Russia were home to top stories of the year as well. China made the list for a triumph, its largely successful hosting of the Beijing Olympics, as well as a tragedy, a powerful earthquake in May that left more than 70,000 dead and led to the collapse of about 7,000 classrooms in shoddily built schools. The five-day Russian-Georgian war in August rounds out the list, a further reminder that Obama will inherit a number of complex and potentially volatile foreign-relations concerns. Stories that almost made the top ten included Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 84,000 people in Myanmar; Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which wreaked deadly damage in the Caribbean and on the U.S. Gulf Coast; and the seesaw fate of same-sex marriage in California, where a court ruling approving it was later overturned by a ballot measure. Several write-in votes were cast for two developments that occurred too late to be included on the AP ballot: the indictment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the efforts of struggling U.S. automakers to get a federal bailout. The alleged financial scam involving Bernard Madoff also was revealed too late to make the ballot. Several of the editors who voted commented on how two transcendent developments dominated the news in 2008. "As far as I am concerned, there were only two stories this year," wrote Linda Grist Cunningham of the Rockford (Illinois) Register Star. "Global economy collapses (sending every country into financial, political, and personal chaos) and Obama elected U.S. president, changing the way the America does business-financial, political, and personal." Source: Articles by Joel Roberts and David Crary for the Associated Press

automakers russia beijing olympics georgia cyclone nargis myanmar hurricane gustav hurricane ike same-sex marriage california bailout bernard madoff china sarah palin hilary clinton rod blagojevich barack obama david cordero school of the art institute of chicago associated press savior iraq war afghanistan war top-ten news stories terrorism mumbai global economy

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The heavy toll of war

01 Nov 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday's reading from the Book of Revelation speaks of "the ones who have survived the time of great distress." The longstanding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as their impact on Pakistan, the United States, and Western allies, have brought great distress in their wake. This past week has been exceptionally violent, with massive suicide bombings in Iraq and Pakistan and high U.S. and United Nations casualties in Afghanistan. On Sunday a pair of suicide car bombings devastated the heart of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, killing at least 147 people in the country's deadliest attack in more than two years. The bombs targeted two government buildings and called into question Iraq's ability to protect its people as U.S. forces withdraw. Two helicopter crashes in Afghanistan killed 14 Americans on Monday, the bloodiest single day for U.S. casualties in more than four years. And Tuesday, October became the deadliest month for U.S. troops in the eight-year-old Afghan war when two bombs killed eight soldiers and an interpreter in separate attacks. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned as "despicable and brutal" an attack on a U.N. guest house in the Afghan capital of Kabul by Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and police uniforms. The attack killed 11 people, including five U.N. staff. It was the biggest in a series of attacks in the capital Wednesday intended to undermine next month's presidential runoff election. The attack on the guesthouse was the worst on the U.N. in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime. The chief of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said the attack "will not deter the U.N. from continuing all its work" in the country. One of the dead was an American, the U.S. embassy said. Also on Wednesday a car bomb struck a busy market in the city of Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 100 people--mostly women and children. The Pakistani government blamed militants seeking to avenge an army offensive launched this month against al-Qaida and the Taliban in their stronghold close to the Afghan border. Source: Articles by Riaz Khan, Rahim Faiez, and Amir Shah for the Associated Press, Joshua Partlow for the Washington Post, BBC News, and CBS News

iraq war peshawar kabul bombings kai eide baghdad united nations ban ki-moon afghanistan war pakistan

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War-weary nation wonders what lies ahead

05 Sep 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In encouraging his followers to weigh the cost of discipleship, Jesus speaks of a king who weighs troop levels and the prospects for success in war. Such concerns are on the nation’s mind this week as the country marks the official end of the combat mission in a still-fragile Iraq, while in Afghanistan the troop casualty toll continues to rise. War and nation-building are costly undertakings. The U.S. has paid “a huge price” since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Obama said in an address from the Oval Office Tuesday evening marking the end of the U.S. combat mission. “To date, the war has cost more than 4,400 U.S. lives and at least $750 billion. “We have sent our young men and women to make enormous sacrifices in Iraq, and spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight budgets at home,” Obama said. “Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it’s time to turn the page.” Even as he spoke hopefully of winding down one war, the president faces Americans’ waning patience and support for continuing the war in Afghanistan that began in 2001 and remains the central battlefield in the U.S. fight against al Qaeda. Casualties are escalating along with troop levels as the U.S. and allies make an effort to regain momentum from the Taliban insurgency. Despite the escalation, the president was quick to set limits on the U.S.’ role. “But, as was the case in Iraq, we cannot do for Afghans what they must ultimately do for themselves,” he said, repeating his pledge to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan next July. Source: Articles by Margaret Taley and Warren P. Strobel for McClatchy Newspapers, Holly Bailey for ABC News, Helene Cooper and Sheryl Gay Stolberg for the New York Times, and Christopher Bodeen for the Associated Press

barack obama iraq war afghanistan war taliban

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Tallying the toll of war

10 Jul 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

All of creation is “subject to futility” and “groaning in labor pains,” this Sunday’s reading from the Letter to the Romans tells us. History will be the final arbiter of the relative success or futility of the United States’ last decade of warfare, but one can only groan at the painful toll it has exacted. A new report from Brown University estimates that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--together with the counterinsurgency efforts in Pakistan--all told will cost $4 trillion and leave 225,000 dead, both civilians and military personnel. When President Barack Obama cited cost as a reason to bring troops home from Afghanistan, he referred to a $1 trillion price tag for America's wars. The Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, has assessed the federal outlay for the wars at $1.8 trillion through 2021. The Brown report said these are gross underestimates, predicting that the government has already paid $2.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion. In human terms, 224,000 to 258,000 people have died directly from warfare, including 125,000 civilians in Iraq. Many more have died indirectly from the deficiencies in clean drinking water, healthcare, and nutrition, according to the report. An additional 365,000 have been wounded, and 7.8 million people have been displaced. More than 6,000 U.S. troops and 2,300 contractors have died since the wars began after Sept. 11, 2001. A staggering 550,000 disability claims have been filed with the Veterans Administration as of 2010. In estimating the $4 trillion total, researchers did not take into account the $5.3 billion in reconstruction spending the government has promised Afghanistan. Neither were state and local contributions to veteran care, interest payments on war debt, or the costs of Medicare for veterans when they reach 65 factored in. "We decided we needed to do this kind of rigorous assessment of what it cost to make those choices to go to war," said Catherine Lutz, head of the anthropology department at Brown and codirector of the study. "Politicians, we assumed, were not going to do that kind of assessment." Sources: Articles by Reuters and Liz Goodwin for The Lookout

war iraq war afghanistan war brown university

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Study war some more

09 Oct 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord will “wipe away the tears from every face” and will remove “the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever,” promises the reading from the Book of Isaiah this Sunday. As the U.S. marks the 10th anniversary of the Afghan war this week, the suffering and divisions of the prolonged hostilities there and in Iraq have taken a great toll on those involved, said a new report. The study by The Pew Research Center reveals wide differences between the way military members and the general public view the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. While civilians polled acknowledge that soldiers and their families make a lot of sacrifices, only one-quarter see that as unfair. A large majority of civilians see it as "just being part of the military." Eight in 10 veterans, by contrast, say the American public doesn't understand the problems faced by those in the military or their families. Paul Taylor, the editor of the study, said he wanted to explore this unique moment in American history. "We've never had sustained combat for a full decade, and we've never fought a war in which such a small share of the population has carried the fight," he said. Just one-half of 1 percent of the American population has served on active duty during the last decade. That compares to the 9 percent who wore a uniform during World War II. Martin Cook, a civilian professor of military ethics at the Naval War College, is troubled by the small percentage of Americans serving in the military. "It becomes much more easy to deploy U.S. forces in tough environments for long periods of time because the vast majority of Americans don't feel they have any skin in the game. “I've often speculated could we have fought wars for 10 years if this was a draftee army and I doubt it," said Cook. Source: An article by Tom Bowman for National Public Radio

iraq war afghanistan war united states pew research center military families martin cook paul taylor military service

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Home for the holidays

18 Dec 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

As families across the nation begin to gather to celebrate the year-end holidays, President Barack Obama welcomed home some of the last U.S. troops to leave Iraq this week, marking a symbolic end to a nearly nine-year war that has brought great hardship and expense for, some say, little gain. Addressing soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on Wednesday, the president did not declare victory in Iraq but called the winding down of the conflict an "extraordinary achievement.” "It is harder to end a war than to begin one," he told about 3,000 soldiers gathered in an airplane hangar. Despite lingering questions about whether the United States should have invaded Iraq, the last American troops "will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high," Obama said. "Of course, Iraq is not a perfect place. But we are leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people," he said. "We are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home." As of this week, there were about 5,500 U.S. troops left in Iraq, down from more than 170,000 at the height of the war that President George W. Bush set into motion in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. "It's been very difficult,” said one of the last troops in Iraq, Army Staff Sgt. Ferren Mathews, speaking to reporters in Baghdad. “You can't put a price on people's lives to begin with, and the benefit of being here this whole time; a lot of it is still to be seen." Leaving Iraq fulfills a pledge that helped Obama win the presidency in 2008 and allows the White House to focus more on Afghanistan as well as economic worries at home, where the high jobless rate will be a major concern for voters next year. Sources: Articles by Martha Raddatz, Richard Coolidge, Huma Khan,Bruno Roeber, and Gina Sunser for ABC News and Laura MacInnis for Reuters

barack obama iraq war

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Iraq ten years on: Not a happy anniversary

24 Mar 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist this Sunday cries out to God in his suffering: “Why have you abandoned me?” a cry we recall this Sunday as we remember the Passion of Christ on the cross. Ten years after the U.S. invaded Iraq, many Iraqis who still suffer daily due the consequences of that invasion feel abandoned by the U.S. and by a local government many say is rife with corruption.The war has left more than 134,000 Iraqis and more than 4,800 U.S. and other coalition service members dead. It has cost hundreds of billions of dollars. “It remains entrenched and pervasive, with a clear beginning but no foreseeable end and very much a part of the present in Iraq,” said Iraq Body Count, a U.K.-based group that tracks war deaths. “In major regions of the country armed violence continues to exact a remorseless toll on human life, young and old, male and female, across society.”More than 1.1 million U.S. soldiers served in Iraq. The National Council on Disabilities says up to 40 percent of veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.Iraq was freed from the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein, but to this day tribal factions continue their long-standing feuds. The premise of the war under then-President George W. Bush was to locate weapons of mass destruction the administration was convinced Iraq would use against other countries in a post-9/11 world, but it quickly became apparent there were few if any.As if to underscore the fragile state of affairs as the anniversary arrived Tuesday, at least 48 people died and scores were wounded when bombs exploded across Iraq. The attacks—17 car bombs, seven roadside bombs, and two shootings—rippled mostly through Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad. It’s the second time in less than a week Baghdad has endured major simultaneous attacks.Homily hint: In the prayers of the faithful this Sunday please remember the long-suffering people of Iraq, the thousands of wounded veterans, and families in the U.S. and around the world who have lost loved ones in this conflict. Sources: Articles by Mohammed Tawfeeq and Joe Sterlingfor CNN and Sara Flounders for GlobalResearch.ca

iraq war baghdad veterans iraq body count

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Foundation helps disabled veterans take heart

12 May 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

As his Ascension nears, Jesus offers a parting prayer in this Sunday’s gospel, praying to the Father “that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.” Soldiers sent off to war who return disabled often feel alone and unloved, their communities not equipped to welcome them and their homes not able to accommodate their new physical and emotional needs.Purple Heart Homes, a nonprofit agency started by two Iraq War, veterans aims to change that. Friends and veterans Dale Beatty and John Gallina nearly died together in 2004 when their Humvee was blown up by an IED in Iraq. Beatty lost both his legs and Gallina suffered severe head and back injuries.Beatty’s community rallied together to help build a home for him and his family. “After all the building was done, John and I sat back and kind of looked and said, ‘Is every veteran receiving this best-case scenario?’ ”Aside from modifying or providing homes for disabled veterans, Purple Heart Homes also helps link veterans with their community. “A major part of reintegration is not just simply from the veteran's perspective,” says Gallina. “It’s also from the community showing that they accept him back.”One veteran who had been helped by the organization said of the community support: “You’re bringing that little bit of faith back, giving that little bit of faith back to veterans—faith in people because you don’t have that when you first get out.”Homily hint: As the war in Iraq fades from the headlines, we may be tempted to forget that many thousands of wounded veterans will live with the ravages of war for the rest of their lives. Raising awareness is the first step in a faith community which looks for ways to reach out to local disabled vets. Source: An article by Meghan Moore for The Upbeat

iraq war veterans john gallina purple heart homes disabled veterans dale beatty

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