I have an ongoing battle and turmoil about being a Catholic. On many occasions I've clashed with the dogma and the clergy about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They have described abortion as "intrinsic evil" but have failed to acknowledge the same should be said about illegal and immoral wars. The email below was sent this past Sunday (July 6, 08) after the Deacon called for us to pray for those "who protect our freedoms in the military" but once again failed to ask that we pray for the innocent victims of the wars our nation unilaterally initiated. I have dogged the parish priests and deacons over the past two years to make this acknowledgement by confronting them after masses and sending emails. I've confronted Archbishop Chaput about his failure to include the wars as being as intrinsically evil as abortion. He eventually snapped off an angry reply to me when I confronted his call for Catholics to vote for candidates in the 2004 election that met the moral values of Catholicism. This was an overt endorsement of Bush by default since the Archbishop had harshly criticized John Kerry for his position on a woman's right to abortion.
I'm tired of sending emails to non-responsive clergy and getting their pat answers. From now on the content of the emails will be made public as I can make them, including my blog. The religious of this nation have done little to oppose the immorality of war. They have, in fact, been the megaphones for the imperialistic actions of this nation. The evangelical Christians have led the fight for a "holy war" against Islamofascism....a code word of racists for Arabs and any non-Zionist in the Middle East.
Msgr. and Deacon,
I’m writing once again to ask the question why prayers are offered for those who “fight to protect our freedoms” (the men and women in the military) but the clergy consistently fail to do so for the innocent victims of our American initiated wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
As a former Marine infantryman in combat during the Vietnam war (1967-69) I feel qualified to speak on the subject of wars and the effects they have on the troops asked to fight them and the victims who get in the way…..the “collateral damage”.
Two years ago I was fortunate to meet Gino Strada, MD, a founder of the Italian based NGO, EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY is a group of surgeons and other healthcare professionals that have dedicated themselves to establishing surgical units in some of the world’s most war-torn regions. Their doctors and other professionals have gone to Laos, Darfur, Afghanistan and Iraq to name a few countries. Dr. Strada works six to nine months in the surgical units teaching local medical staff to treat the wounds of war. Often times the patients are children. That’s especially true in nations that have been bombed with cluster bombs by American planes. In Dr. Stada’s book, Green Parrots, he writes about children picking up unexploded cluster bombs lying in the fields only to have them explode in their hands. That’s one of the purposes of cluster bombs….to leave the undetonated bombs strewn across areas of “hostile” regions to wreak further havoc on the “enemy”.
Sadly, cluster bombs quite closely resemble food packets dropped by relief organizations to areas where war and starvation go hand in hand. Children and adults, not being able to read the English on the bombs and packets, pick up the bombs by mistake. The most common injury has been traumatic amputations. If the victim survives the initial blast. Traumatic brain injury is also a factor since the bombs are so up close and personal when exploded. In Laos there are more unexploded bombs than any other place on the planet. The bombs are leftovers from the war in Vietnam when American bombers did saturation bombing over a large part of Laos in efforts to stop supplies of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese being smuggled into Vietnam. Now the bombs are over thirty years old and quite volatile.
Dr. Strada explained to me children often scavenge scrap metal to buy food and necessary items for their families. Unexploded bombs lay waiting for the hunters to attempt scavenging.
Dr. Strada points out since WWII that 90% of the casualties of all wars have been civilians. Of that number 40% of the victims are children. I’ll leave it to your imaginations how many children have been killed since WWII in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Bosnia and all the many other wars.
In addition to cluster bombs, the U.S. has used weapons firing projectiles such as artillery and heavy machine gun rounds that have depleted uranium rods incorporated in the rounds. Depleted uranium (DU) has been used by American troops since the Serbian/Bosnian conflict. Tons of DU was used in bombs, artillery shells, and other weapons’ ammunition during the first Gulf War. Only a few hundred troops were killed or wounded during that war but veterans of the war have been disabled at alarming rates by Gulf War Syndrome. Thousands upon thousands have died and hundreds of thousands are disabled.
The Department of Defense funded a study by a physicist, Doug Rokke , to determine the effects of DU. Rokke took a team to Iraq and checked radiation levels of Iraqi tanks and areas hit by American bombs. The team found Geiger counter readings maxing out in most places they went. Most of that team has died since the study and Rokke is dying of cancer. Studies have also shown every place the US has used DU weapons there have been dramatic increases in birth defects, childhood leukemia, childhood cancer, soft tissue cancer and other diseases and symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning. DOD didn’t like the results of the study and fired Rokke during the current President’s term of office.
American troops are exposed to daily doses of DU in the current wars because despite outcries from several scientists (including Dr. Helen Caldicott) depleted uranium continues to be used by the tons. Skeptics say DU is a safe by-product of the processing of the more active uranium used in nuclear weapons. It’s the heaviest known element on earth which makes it ideal for penetration of armored vehicles. The proponents of DU say it is like “a hot knife going through butter” when fired at the armored vehicles.
Skeptics say DU is safe and doesn’t harm human respiratory systems or other body systems. In the inert state of DU it is safe but when the ammunition detonates the DU is vaporized and aerolized into micro particles tinier than the inhalants an asthma sufferer might use. The vaporized DU enters lungs, water systems, sand and other areas and parts and becomes a health problem. The DU crisis is coming as it came with Gulf War I five to ten years after exposure.
American troops are also using napalm and white phosphorous explosives such as bombs and mortars. These are against the Geneva Convention guidelines but by renaming the explosives the military continues to avoid sanction. I’m very close to an Iraq veteran that blew the whistle on the military concerning use of these devices. I’ve seen the effects of napalm and white phosphorous on humans. We used to call the victims of napalm “crispy critters” because they were so charred. White phosphorous can’t be readily extinguished and burns through flesh and bone of the victims. Keep in mind the numbers Dr. Strada tells us are casualties of war since WWII. In the guerilla types of war civilians are indistinguishable from the enemy in the minds of most troops.
Since 2003, Lancet, a distinguished medical journal, has done a scientific study of Iraqi casualties from the war. Their estimate is 1.5 million dead. Numbers for Afghanistan aren’t readily available. 90% of that number is likely non-combatants with 40% of that number being children.
I’m including this information to give you an idea of the catastrophic nature of wars. And I am greatly troubled the Catholic Church in Denver and across the nation has failed to speak out against the immorality of wars. I’m not surprised but I am troubled.
I have a friend who went to Catholic schools from K-12 here in Denver. He was a medic in Vietnam during a time of heavy combat. He often recalls Father “Woody” speaking out against the communists in Vietnam and encouraging the boys in the Catholic high school my friend attended to enlist to fight the “godless communists”. My friend was greatly influenced by the encouragement and by the mandatory attendance of the funerals of troops killed in action here in the Denver area. The young high school students were mandated by instructors, which included clergy, to attend the funerals.
When I returned from Vietnam I was 19. I had spent all of 1968 in Vietnam at age 18 and 19. I was involved in heavy combat during the Tet Offensive of 1968 while a Marine infantryman. The horror of that time followed me home. I once asked a priest what God would say about a man who killed several humans while in Vietnam. The priest gave me a pat answer that I was part of a justified war and protecting my country and would be absolved. His answer enraged me because I knew I had broken the commandment of “thou shall not kill”. I wanted to hear a man of God tell me war is a sin. I’ve yet to hear that from a Catholic priest about an American war.
I converted to Catholicism a while back because I felt a great epiphany at my grandson’s baptism. I went to daily mass almost every day for two or three years. I stopped in 2003. Even though Pope John Paul II spoke out against the war, American clergy went along with the mob and said little. Often times it even seemed the Church was a cheerleader of the troops. It still feels that way when we keep getting requests for prayers spoken during mass asking us to pray for “those who protect our freedoms” but seldom if ever hear a call to pray for the innocent victims of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but since 9-11 our freedoms have been eroded. We now allow torture, wire taps of citizens without reasonable cause, imprisonment of persons of interest without need of charging them, limitation of free speech to “free speech zones” sometimes caged, monitoring of any and all correspondence, lengthy imprisonment of clergy and elderly citizens who commit acts of non-violent civil disobedience at places such as the School of Americas (notorious for training troops of repressive regimes in Central and South America) and a laundry list of other rights and freedoms taken from American citizens too afraid to oppose such oppressive acts. We have a gulag in Cuba and secret prisons in Europe and other sites for alleged terrorists but it has become clear most are simply men and boys of possible combatant age. I ask if this is the freedom being protected by troops we should pray for. Where is the moral courage of the Church to speak the truth about wars that are illegal and immoral? If the Church won’t speak out against the sin of war, killing, torture, spying and other repressive acts against citizens it seems the Church is merely a complicit partner with the civil authority.
I go to mass now to be with my wife but I have lost my faith in the Catholic Church and most Christian churches in this nation who seem to be unwilling to take a moral stand other than about abortion and gay marriages. On those two issues the Church is loud and clear. Why not the insanity of war? Why not a call to pray for innocent victims of the insanity? Why the continued false patriotism that makes believe our troops fight for freedom. I pray for the troops and know many of the young men and women who have gone multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan. I see their thousand yard stares and see them self-medicating to get relief from intrusive and horrible memories. I’ve seen them cry and rage about their experiences. I know of some who have killed themselves in despair. Some have killed others in rage and from being trained to react with violence when feeling threatened. I seldom hear them talk about protecting our freedoms. I do hear many say they detest yellow ribbons on cars saying “support the troops” while they wait over six months for needed medical care once discharged.
I truly don’t expect a change but I need to make a moral choice to tell the parish leaders of my dismay. I would also point out Notre Dame is within the zip code with the highest rate of foreclosure in the entire state of Colorado. The costs of continuing wars does have a connection to the many who struggle to stay in a home, get medical care, get adequate schooling, have a job with a living wage and lack of social programs to assist the marginalized. 80219 has paid a high cost in that regard.
Wishing you peace,
Wm Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
USMC combat veteran
Vietnam (Dec 1967-Feb 1969)
3rd Bn/5th Marines, 1st Marine Div.
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