Brownwood Texas & Wayward Christian Soldiers

Sunday January 22, 2006

Brownwood says thanks to military

By Steve Nash — Brownwood Bulletin

Symbols of triumph and patriotism mixed with the tears of sacrifice as Brownwood honored the nation’s military Saturday — first in a joyful downtown parade, then in an emotional ceremony in the Brownwood Coliseum.
The posting of the colors, a somber rendition of “Taps” and a rifle salute were among events interwoven among speeches in the coliseum from politicians and military men. Speakers offered tribute to the family of Marine Lance Cpl. Mario Castillo of Brownwood, who was killed in Iraq in June 2005, and a street sign commemorating a portion of Main Street as “Lance Corporal Mario A. Castillo Memorial Street” was unveiled.
And while legislators and military men — some of them succumbing to tears — praised the accomplishments of the military in Iraq, Afghanistan and in previous wars, they returned to the theme of sacrifice, saying it is the cost of liberty.
“You can’t ask for a more wonderful turnout from a community,” Sgt. Erik Llano of Ford Hood’s 21st Cavalry Brigade said after the ceremony.
Another 21st Cavalry soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Dave Thomas, said, “This is great support, sir — nice turnout. I didn’t expect so much.”
Saturday’s event, dubbed the “Day of Honor,” was intended to honor Brownwood’s service members who have just retuned from active duty, as well as veterans of previous wars and those currently serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Marching on a crisp, windy day, members of the Pecan Valley Detachment of the Marine Corps League led off the parade starting at the coliseum, followed by a 21st Cavalry Brigade marching band that chimed out patriotic songs. Three retired brigadier generals from Brownwood — Dan Locker, Leroy Thompson and Stephen Korenek — rode in the parade.
Spectators — many waving American flags — lined the parade route and cheered and applauded as floats or vehicles with military themes rolled by.
The coliseum ceremony began with opening remarks by master of ceremonies and Brown County Judge Ray West, who said citizens must not forget that “what our honorees have done, they have done for us. ... All of our honorees have secured our future.”
After West’s remarks, footsteps of four members of the Marine Corps League Color Guard echoed across the coliseum as they marched to the front to post the colors. After a prayer by Father Nelson Koschesky, Bill Fishback sang The National Anthem.
Then, an appreciative coliseum crowd heard speeches by Col. Greg Brockman, commanding officer of the 21st Cavalry Brigade (Air Combat); state Rep. Jim Keffer; Bob Ogg, commandant of the Pecan Valley Detachment of the Marine Corps League; Dr. Jim Hays, a retired Texas National Guard colonel; state Sen. Troy Fraser; Dr. Dan Locker, retired Air Force brigadier general; and U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway.
After one of the speeches, Babs Shields of the Military and Family Support Group lit a candle in honor of area servicemen who have died in the military, followed by a moment of silence.
“ ... We love your recognition of our service to our country,” Brockman said. “Soldiers stand a little taller on hearing words of gratitude. ... So thank you, Brownwood. Your appreciation for the military and our service is, itself, a great service to our nation.”
Keffer read letters from U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn thanking the military for its service and sacrifice.
Keffer said he brought greetings from Austin.

“My definition of Austin sometimes is, “10 square miles surrounded by reality,” Keffer said. “This is reality, and this is where the rubber meets the road.”

Ogg recounted some of the battlefields of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and spoke of Castillo, saying he had a warrior and “one of our brothers. ... Some gave some. Some gave all. Mario gave all.
“He is gone. He is not forgotten. Semper fidelis, semper fidelis,” Ogg said, repeating the Latin phrase for “always faithful,” the Marine Corps’ motto.

Hays said the nation is fighting “a different kind of war” that started before Sept. 11, 2001. Hays described it as a war between the United States and radical Islamics and is “a war for the survival of our Judeo-Christian ethics, our way of life, our religion. We cannot lose this war.”

After Ogg spoke, the candle-lighting and a rifle salute from American Legion Post 196 were held.
Then it was Fraser’s turn at the microphone. “I am struck today, that as I stand here, I am standing in the shadow of freedom,” he said.
Fraser conveyed greetings from Texas Gov. Rick Perry and thanked Castillo’s family for his willingness to serve his country and sacrifice his life.
Locker introduced his 91-year-old veteran father, Braswell, and said Americans are free because of the resolve of the nation’s military. Without that resolve, Locker said, Americans could be speaking a different dialect today — German or Russian.
Locker said it’s better in Iraq with Saddam Hussein out of power, and listed some of the accomplishments in Iraq that including improvements to education and infrastructure, that, he said, are seldom reported in the press.
The resolve, Locker said, is learned in home, school and church, and is “the resolve to be free, to teach patriotism and to give up our sons and daughters, if necessary, for the cause of patriotism.”
The time came for the unveiling of the street sign and dedication to Castillo. Borrowing a phrase from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Brownwood City Manager Kevin Carruth said it was important to remember those “who gave the last full measure of devotion.”
As members of the Castillo family sat a few feet away, Bulletin Associate Publisher Bill Crist unveiled the sign.
Conaway, emotional following the Castillo dedication, struggled to find his voice.
“Twenty-one hundred families have been asked to do something the rest of us haven't been asked to do,” he said, referring to the approximate number of American military casualties in the Iraq war.
Conaway listed accomplishments in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying “we will win this war. We’re going to finish that fight. ... A simple ‘thank-you’ seems awfully shallow, but it’s the best we can do.”
Just before the ceremony concluded with Maj. Kenn White, operations officer for the 3rd Battalion, 112th Armor, 56th Brigade Combat Team, presenting a certificate and an American flag the City of Brownwood.
Then, the Marine Corps Color Guard retrieved the colors.
After the ceremony, Castillo family members gathered around the street sign honoring Mario.
“What can you say?” Castillo’s widow, Angela, said, simultaneously smiling and wiping tears from her eyes. “(The tribute) makes it a little easier.”

She said her tears weren’t just tears of sadness, but were also tears of happiness.
source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2006/01/22/news/news01.txt
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Published on Sunday, January 22, 2006 by the International Herald Tribune

Wayward Christian Soldiers
by Charles Marsh

In the past several years, American evangelicals - and I am one of them - have amassed greater political power than at any time in our history. But at what cost to our witness and the integrity of our message?
Recently, I took a few days to reread the war sermons delivered by influential evangelical ministers during the lead up to the Iraq war.
In that period, from the fall of 2002 through the spring of 2003, many of the most respected voices in American evangelical circles blessed President George W. Bush's war plans, even when doing so required them to recast Christian doctrine.
Charles Stanley, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, whose weekly sermons are seen by millions of television viewers, led the charge with particular fervor. "We should offer to serve the war effort in any way possible," said Stanley, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. "God battles with people who oppose him, who fight against him and his followers."
In an article carried by the convention's Baptist Press news service, a missionary wrote that "American foreign policy and military might have opened an opportunity for the Gospel in the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Both Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, and Marvin Olasky, the editor of the conservative World magazine and a former advisor to Bush on faith-based policy, echoed these sentiments, claiming that the American invasion of Iraq would create exciting new prospects for proselytizing Muslims.
Tim LaHaye, the co-author of the hugely popular "Left Behind" series, spoke of Iraq as "a focal point of end-time events," whose special role in the earth's final days will become clear after invasion, conquest and reconstruction. Jerry Falwell declared that "God is pro-war" in the title of an essay he wrote in 2004.
The war sermons rallied the evangelical congregations behind the invasion of Iraq. An astonishing 87 percent of all white evangelical Christians in the United States supported the president's decision in April 2003.
Recent polls indicate that 68 percent of white evangelicals continue to support the war. But what surprised me, looking at these sermons nearly three years later, was how little attention they paid to Christian moral doctrine.
Some tried to square the U.S. invasion with Christian "just war" theory, but such efforts could never quite reckon with the criterion that force must only be used as a last resort.
Some preachers tried to link Saddam Hussein with wicked King Nebuchadnezzar of Biblical fame, but these arguments depended on esoteric interpretations of the Old Testament.
The single common theme among the war sermons appeared to be this: Our president is a real brother in Christ, and because he has discerned that God's will is for our nation to be at war against Iraq, we shall gloriously comply.
Such sentiments are a far cry from those expressed in the Lausanne Covenant of 1974. More than 2,300 evangelical leaders from 150 countries signed that statement, the most significant milestone in the movement's history.
Convened by Billy Graham and led by John Stott, the revered Anglican evangelical priest and writer, the signatories affirmed the global character of the church of Jesus Christ and the belief that "the church is the community of God's people rather than an institution, and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology."
Unlike the Pope John Paul II, who said that invading Iraq would violate Catholic moral teaching and threaten "the fate of humanity," or even Pope Benedict XVI, who has said there were "not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq," Stott did not speak publicly on the war. But in a recent interview, he shared with me his abiding concerns.
"Privately, in the days preceding the invasion, I had hoped that no action would be taken without United Nations authorization," he told me. "I believed then and now that the American and British governments erred in proceeding without UN approval."
Stott referred me to "War and Rumors of War," a chapter from his 1999 book, "New Issues Facing Christians Today," as the best account of his position. There he wrote that the Christian community's primary mission must be "to hunger for righteousness, to pursue peace, to forbear revenge, to love enemies, in other words, to be marked by the cross."
What will it take for American evangelicals to recognize our mistaken loyalty? We have increasingly isolated ourselves from the shared faith of the global Church, and there is no denying that our Faustian bargain for access and power has undermined the credibility of our moral and evangelistic witness in the world.
Charles Marsh, a professor of religion at the University of Virginia, is the author of ''The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today.''

© 2006 The International Herald Tribune
source: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0122-26.htm
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January 20, 2006
latimes.com : Print Edition

She's on Activist Duty Now
Mary Ann Wright quit a 30-year Army and diplomatic career in protest of the Iraq war. She's now a soldier for the antiwar movement.

By Elizabeth Mehren, Times Staff Writer

KEENE, N.H. — In a dingy meeting room with walls the color of day-old oatmeal, 40 people in plastic chairs formed a ragged circle. Sharing first names, they went around the room: teachers, students, nurses and at least three active-duty service members. They had come to hear about military buildups around the world, but what they really wanted to do was hash out their feelings about the Iraq war.
Fred wanted to know what to tell his 10th-grade grandson, who already worried that he would be sent to Iraq. Catherine questioned whether the high school students she counseled should believe the promises they heard from military recruiters. Army veteran Tom asked if conditions for the troops were as bad as he had heard.
Finally, the circle ended with Ann. With her smiling sincerity and sleek hairdo, she looked like she belonged on the suburban charity circuit. Not hardly: As an Army colonel and diplomat, Mary Ann Wright served her country for more than 30 years in some of the most isolated and dangerous parts of the world — then quit because she felt she could not defend this war.
"I resigned when the Iraq war began in March 2003 because I felt the policies of this administration were making the world more dangerous," Wright said. "I felt it was an illegal war and I could not be a part of it."
For more than two years, this unlikely activist has carried her message to small audiences, arguing that the war has increased animosity toward the United States. Wright is part of a tiny network of individuals who crisscross the country to speak out against the Iraq war.
Ron Kovic, a disabled Vietnam veteran from Redondo Beach, pulls out his bullhorn at rallies in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington. Michael Berg, whose civilian contractor son Nicholas Berg was beheaded in Baghdad in 2004, said he was so "obsessed" with ending the war that he once gave the same speech 16 times in seven days.
These independent antiwar speakers often appear on platforms arranged by peace groups. Like Wright — a member of Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change and Veterans for Peace — some belong to organizations. But as they address rallies, student groups and whoever else invites them, they represent only themselves. They pay their own expenses and do not accept speakers' fees.
"That would be obscene," said former California state Sen. Tom Hayden, a freelance antiwar speaker.
Wright, 59, brings a distinctive perspective. "I come at this as a foreign service professional," she said. "This is not a political rant. This is a well-reasoned argument of why I thought it was necessary to resign."
Even those who dislike her views do not dispute her right to contest U.S. policy. Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, noted that Wright was now a private citizen. "The 1st Amendment, that's what we're fighting for," Krenke said. "She is basing her views on what she has experienced — and she has obviously had a wide and expansive career."
James Jay Carafano, a national security analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said he didn't think Wright had special credibility because she spent time in uniform. But, he said, "This is how democracies wage war. In every war, you are going to find people who don't like it."
Operating out of the limelight, activists such as Wright are influencing public opinion about the war, said Bill Dobbs, communications director of United for Peace and Justice, an antiwar coalition in New York. "Their impact is subtle, but they must get serious credit," he said.
No one was more surprised than Wright to find herself among war opponents. She had been part of the system since she was 20, after she heard an Army recruiter's pep talk at the University of Arkansas. Wright was one of two daughters of a Bentonville, Ark., banker who gave Sam Walton a loan that helped launch his Wal-Mart empire.
Her career options in the 1960s were largely limited to being a teacher, nurse or homemaker, but Wright wanted something different. Mostly, she wanted out of Arkansas. "The recruiter made it sound glamorous: 'Join the Army, see the world,' " she said. "So that is what I did."
She saw the Army as an escape, not a career path. But the structure of the military suited her. Starting with her first posting at San Francisco's Presidio during the Vietnam War — followed by a stint at a NATO station in the Netherlands — Wright loved being in the Army.
She served 13 years on active duty, broken up over several tours, and 16 years in the Reserves. She never saw combat, though she was stationed in Grenada, Somalia, Nicaragua and Panama. She earned two master's degrees and a law degree while in the Army. In the early 1980s, she began trying to open up new military assignments for women.
Retired Brig. Gen. Pat Foote said she expected to see maybe a dozen women in uniform when she attended one of the "women in the military" meetings Wright organized at Ft. Bragg, N.C. Instead, she said, "I was amazed; there were over 200 women in the room."
Foote said she was neither surprised nor troubled by Wright's transformation. "If you want a point of departure on Ann, it is that she is one of the most ethical and principled human beings I have ever met," Foote said. "When she went into government service, she did it as a public servant. She did it because she felt it was the right thing to do to help her country. She is a patriot."
When she requested an embassy posting in 1987, Wright was told that the Army's defense attache program was not open to women. Her response was to leave the Army — giving up a likely promotion to general — to switch to the foreign service.
She rose swiftly, landing assignments in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Micronesia, and earning a heroism award for evacuating U.S. citizens during a coup in Sierra Leone. In 2001, she was part of the first team of diplomats to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.
"As a diplomat, Ann had an absolutely phenomenal career," said F. Allen "Tex" Harris, a retired senior foreign service officer who worked with Wright. "She had abilities, background and luck. The luck is that she served in several posts where things went crazy, and she was given an opportunity to show her capability."
Wright was second in command at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia when she heard that large numbers of U.S. troops were being sent to the Middle East. Before long, she and other diplomats began receiving cables from Washington, threatening to cut off development funds for the countries where they were posted "if our country was not part of the coalition of the willing," Wright said.
In 2003, Wright awoke at 3 each morning in Mongolia to watch BBC news on her satellite TV. "In the pit of my stomach, I became convinced that there was no way in the world that going to war in an oil-rich country in the Middle East was going to make the world safer," she said.
Writing her three-page resignation letter to then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made her so stressed that medics thought she was having a heart attack.
"This is the only time in my many years serving America that I have felt I cannot represent the policies of an administration of the United States," she wrote.
She was one of three top diplomats to quit on grounds that the war was a foreign policy debacle, halting what Harris called "an odds-on" candidacy to head an embassy.
While serving in such places as Honduras, Panama and Grenada, Wright said, she justified her sometimes questionable work — in support of Nicaragua's Contra rebels, for example — on grounds that it provided humanitarian aid.
"But when you really look at the long arm of it, I should have resigned earlier," she said.
Wright left with no plan for the future. She owned an apartment in Hawaii, and thought she might retreat there to watch the whales. When a Washington think tank asked her to be on a panel about "risky diplomacy" weeks after her resignation, Wright surprised herself by coming out with a fully formed thesis about the strategic shortcomings of the Iraq war. Soon she was fielding invitations to talk about U.S. foreign policy.
She traveled all over the U.S. — even to Europe — enjoying the fact that her government pension was financing her antiwar activities. She became a perpetual houseguest, sleeping on pull-out couches in remote outposts such as this western New Hampshire college town.
She began to have fun. In Dover, Del., the young Republican club at Wesley College denounced her as a "Bush basher" who had no place at the small Methodist school. (She spoke there anyway, and about 100 people turned out in a room where 50 chairs had been set out.)
In August, Wright spent 26 days outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, protesting alongside Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in the war and who vowed not to leave Crawford until Bush met with her. There, Wright became known as the commandant of "Camp Casey," the protest encampment named after Army Spc. Casey Sheehan.
At Keene State College here, Wright began by describing her Army career, but quickly turned her focus to the Iraq war. She talked about U.S. soldiers whom she said lacked adequate equipment, who operated out of "four huge military bases that have been constructed like little Americas, in a country that does not have enough sewage or electricity for its own people." She discussed what she called excessive involvement by civilian contractors, along with the prospect that U.S. soldiers will return from Iraq with mental and emotional problems.
Offering advice on protest techniques, she said: "I am a brand-new person to this. But it sure seems to me that the physical acts get a lot of attention."
Wright spoke with pride about being ejected from a Senate hearing last fall after excoriating the witness, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "You, the Senate, were bamboozled by the administration on Iraq and you cannot be bamboozled again! Stop this woman from killing!"
Within seconds a guard was escorting her out of the room. Wright slipped her arm through his elbow and walked out as if he were her date.
She has heard nothing from Washington officials: "They just ignore me."
But Tom Stockton, 35, paid careful attention as Wright addressed the gathering here that was part of a larger conference on globalization. Stockton, an education student, spent nine years in the Army.
"The protesting part kind of bothers me," he said. "But the message she is portraying is a good message. She is talking about the impossible situation our military is in trying to fight this war. Usually, the issues of the soldiers are not being addressed, so it is good to hear from an insider — who is now an outsider."
Keene State education professor Susan Theberge said the audience left inspired because of Wright's ability to connect with her listeners.
"She was on the inside, and so she really understands what's going on. And yet she gave up all that power and privilege," Theberge said. "To me, that is the definition of what an active conscience is. And that is her real draw."
After decades of government service, Wright, in turn, has found a new community. The Army officer and diplomat is at home among Americans who are anguishing about this war. "We are on the same sheet of music," she said, adding that she would continue to make her voice heard, as long as the war goes on.

source: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-wright20jan20,1,6568937,full.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true
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From the Dallas Morning News
Letter to the Editor

Letters on Points
10:24 AM CST on Sunday, January 22, 2006

Enough bashing Democrats

I have learned from recent features in Points that intellectuals (who, by the way, are always liberals) are always wrong in their predictions and thus should be ignored; people who defend this country only vote Republican; and, most recently, that Democrats must be from another planet as they are the sole practitioners of character assassination in Washington.
That last one is especially stunning. I understand that no one remembers Lee Atwater, but Karl Rove is still smearing people left and right.
Meanwhile, I see no feature articles about a ruling party more fiscally irresponsible than a drunken sailor, an administration that plays fast and loose with the rules and wants to take away rights for some nebulous war on terror and little commentary about a corrupt Congress.
Stop the charade. Go ahead and rename your Sunday opinion section "Republicans Good, Democrats Bad." Are you guys the print medium for the Fox News Channel?
Brandon Scott, Flower Mound

source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/letters/stories/DN-3ponpoints_0122edi.ART.State.Edition1.3e68322.html