Reflections on Blood and the Pentagon
by Steve Baggarly

     Why throw human blood on the columns and doors of
the main entrance leading into the Pentagon? A quote
from Albert Camus comes to mind (to paraphrase), "What
the world expects of Christians is to get out of their
abstractions and stand face to face with the bloody
mess that is our history today. Christians must speak
out and utter their condemnation in such a way that
never a doubt, never a single doubt can arise in the
heart of even the simplest person." We tried to be as
clear as the contrast between the dark red blood and
the fresh white Pentagon columns killing is wrong,
preparations for killing are wrong, the work done at
the Pentagon ends with the shedding of blood, and
we're against it. Blood is the symbol of life, all
life is holy, all people are created in the image and
likeness of God, all people are family, and everyone
is loved by God. As people trying to follow Jesus, who
opposed evil with active nonviolence and took up the
cross rather than the sword, we'd rather our blood be
shed than anyone else's. We tried to be clear.
   A brief rundown on some of the latest news from the
Pentagon may help to further clarify our action. The
US is preparing for a massive invasion of Iraq, this
after 11 years of sanctions aimed at crippling Sadaam
Hussein have claimed the lives of some 1 million
Iraqis, two-thirds of them children. The stated goal
of the invasion is to disarm any weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) which Hussein has hidden away. These
are the same weapons (including anthrax and bubonic
plague) which the US Government (led by Donald
Rumsfeld) and some 20 US companies helped Hussein
acquire during the 1980's while it was general
knowledge that he was using these weapons against his
own Kurdish population as well as the Iranians with
whom he was at war.
    While the Bush administration seems obsessed with
disarming Iraqi and also North Korean WMD, it is
cranking up its own nuclear weapons industry,
announcing plans to build new generations of smaller
nukes better suited for battlefield use, preparing to
resume nuclear testing, and creating new doctrine for
its use of nuclear weapons. These doctrines include
the targeting of non-nuclear states for nuclear
attack, the use of nuclear weapons in pre-emptive
attacks on states or terrorist groups suspected of
having WMD and even using nukes in the event of
"surprising military developments." While the US
demands the disarmament of its opponents, it has
12,500 nuclear weapons itself, thousands of which are
on launch-on-warning status, has been using depleted
uranium weapons for over a decade now, and is on the
road to using nuclear weapons as a regular part of its
war fighting repertoire.
    So, too, the recent war in Afghanistan, in which
over 4,000 Afghan civilians were killed (more civilian
deaths than in the 9-11 attacks), was waged against
many ex-mujahadeen fighters whom the Pentagon armed
and trained during the late 70's and through the
1980's during their war with the Soviet occupiers. The
Al-Queda training camps in Afghanistan were built by
the CIA in the 80's. Now the US is allowing the
torture of prisoners taken in its "war on terrorism."
And Afghans, mostly children, will be maimed and
killed for decades to come by the thousands of
unexploded US cluster bombs which now litter their
country.
   Plans for a National Missile Defense (NMD) proceed
apace, perhaps ultimately putting in place the final
piece of the nuclear first-strike puzzle wherein the
Pentagon can launch nuclear first strikes without any
fear of retaliatory missile launches. NMD research
will also help Washington as it races alone to
militarize outer space, against the wishes of every
other nation on the planet. US Space Command in its
document "Vision 20/20" explicitly states its mission
as "dominating the space dimension of military
operations to protect US interests and investment."
The document suggests that the US empire is unlikely
to be challenged by a global peer competitor, but will
continue to be challenged regionally because "the
globalization of the world economy will also continue,
with a widening between 'haves' and 'have nots.'" In
the parlance, the Pentagon is pursuing "Full Spectrum
Dominance," the ability to be militarily dominant
anywhere in the world at any time, from nuclear war to
conventional war, to quashing dissent in the streets.
In this way the US can pursue its economic agenda,
controlling its access to critical resources and cheap
labor around the world (the US is 6% of world
population and consumes 40% of the worlds resources),
in attempt to sustain the highest level of consumption
in world history.
    Toward this end, the US is the only country which
has divided up the planet into military commands with
commanders and troops in each one. The Pentagon has
over 475,000 troops and civilians overseas both afloat
and ashore, in more than 146 countries. The US sells
weapons to some 150 countries, leading the world in
selling every kind of weapon imaginable, from nuclear
components to conventional weapons to stun guns and
shock batons used by police and in torture chambers
around the globe. The US sells weapons to both sides
in one-third of the world's 35 currently raging wars.
The Pentagon oversees the training of militaries from
120 countries, including those of more than 50
countries with horrendous human rights records, the
militaries of which wage war on their own civilian
populations or back regimes that arrest, exile,
torture, or execute dissenters. The US has been
involved in a war per year for the last 50 years, and,
according to ex-CIA agent John Stockwell,
the CIA breaks 10,000 laws a day in sovereign nations
around the world, US covert and overt operations
claiming more than 6 million lives since World War II.
 The $800 billion, including financing, to be spent by
the Pentagon this year is more than the rest of the
world combined. The US has spent over $16 trillion on
war since 1945, including over $5 trillion on WMD. All
of this is done in our names and with our money, we
are all responsible.
    As the Pentagon MPs yelled and screamed at us to
get on the ground after we had thrown the blood,  I
knew what had brought me there. War is hardest on the
children and the poor. 90% of war casualties in the
last 30 years have been civilians, and children have
been much more likely than soldiers to be killed in
war. One in every 200 hundred children in the world
have been traumatized by the effects of war. The poor
are not only the highest number of casualties, but war
is the main creator of famine and refugees. Each
minute world militaries spend $1.7 million while 30
children die hunger related deaths. Every penny that
is spent on war has been stolen from the poor.
   Like other actions of his, Jesus' cleansing of the
Jerusalem temple was illegal, a nonviolent defense of
the poor who, from the street level on up, were
exploited by the temple sacrificial and exchange
systems. It is not difficult to see the Pentagon as
our contemporary temple, central to US wielding of
political, economic, and very real religious power,
doing much to form the world view of its citizens. War
is our number one business, and like every imperial
people, our faith is in militarism. We believe that
the violence of the good guys is what saves the world,
and we are the good guys. We really trust in our
weapons, rather than God, to save us.
   Breaking the law is very much to the point, for it
is the law which forms the protective hedge around the
weapons and holds the whole violent, oppressive system
together. Every new weapons system rolled out by the
Pentagon, no matter how horrific, is lawful. Every
contingency plan for the destruction of the planet and
the entire human family through nuclear war is
unquestioned by US law. Every US invasion (100 in the
past century), covert action, destabilization of a
foreign government, support for a brutal dictator,
every act of proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, is rubber stamped by the US judiciary. No
US corporation that sold WMD to Sadaam Hussein will be
held to account. No Pentagon employees who armed or
trained Osama bin Laden and the mujahadeen, ensuring
the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism, will even be
questioned. US law makes disarmament illegal. Jesus is
our model for nonviolent civil resistance to laws
protecting the masters of war and their killing
machines.
   The blood on the Pentagon is also in memory of
Philip Berrigan, who passed away the first week of
December after a lifetime of nonviolent direct action
against war, whose life in community was lived
commentary on the gospels for our time and place.