In an Op-Ed on Sunday, The Rev. Bill "Bix" Bichsel denounced the cynicism of the News Tribune (Tacoma, WA).[1] -- In a Dec. 15 editorial, the News Tribune had lectured the Jesuit priest about the nature of the "real world."[2] -- Bichsel noted that Jesus's pursuit of "the way of peace" had "led him to his execution," but that "the execution is not," pace the News Tribune, "the final say: If we wish to continue the work of the Prince of Peace, we must work to make active nonviolence real in our lives and in our world." -- But religious faith is not the only reality underlying the brave gesture of the Bangor Five: there is also "the legal reality that nuclear weapons are illegal under U.S. and humanitarian laws. The Hague Agreements, the Geneva Protocols, the U.N. Charter and the Nuremberg Principles to which the United States is a signatory all outlaw nuclear weapons because they are indiscriminate killers of civilians and because they destroy the environment and infrastructure of cities and civilizations." -- And because "Article 6, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states that all treaties and agreements made by the United States with other nations become the supreme law of the land," it follows that "These laws are incorporated into our domestic laws." -- Yet "[a]t the recent trial in which I and four companions were convicted of entering the Stategic Weapons Facility Pacific at Bangor, where the nuclear warheads for the Navy’s Trident subs are stored, we were forbidden the use of humanitarian law and necessity as a defense." -- COMMENT: In other words — words Bix is too charitable to utter, even in the face of the possibility that he will spend the rest of his life in prison — the trial of the Disarm Now Plowhares defendants in Federal District Court in Tacoma on Dec. 7-10, 2010, was a travesty of justice. -- The infernal reasoning of the News Tribune in its Dec. 15 editorial is a cynical counsel of despair and resignation that defies both the religious faith of most Americans and our nation's foundational commitment to the rule of law. -- And it ignores the appalling reality of nuclear weapons, whose stupefying nature has been apparent in virtually every aspect of the public and media response to the trial....
1.
INTIMIDATION DOESN'T BRING PEACE -- IT ONLY BRINGS FEAR
By The Rev. Bill Bichsel
News Tribune (Tacoma)
December 19, 2010
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/12/19/1471126/intimidation-doesnt-bring-peace.html
I take deep issue with the editorial of Dec. 15, “Who’s guarding the nukes at Kitsap-Bangor?” [See #2 below.]
The editorial states, “But in the real world -- as opposed to the wishful thinking world -- intimidation is sometimes the only means of maintaining peace.” Intimidation never brings or maintains peace; it only maintains a state of fear.
One nation pointing its nuclear weapons at another produces fear that brings the other nation to arm itself. Intimidation brings on an endless cycle of fear and the proliferation of nuclear weapons among nations.
In this “real world,” fear, hopelessness, apathy, and ever-cycling violence reigns. It seems to me that the majority of Americans are lulled into living out this reign of fear in which the political, economic, corporate, military, and media power is in the control of the few.
The editorial describes the “wishful thinking world” by alluding to the vision of Isaiah 11:6-9, in which the “... lions lie down with lambs.” Isaiah’s vision expresses the deep hope that people can work through entrenched layers of fear, prejudice, and hate that keep people apart. It is a vision of hope for a peaceful kingdom.
In this Advent season, we reflect on the coming of the Prince of Peace, who comes in vulnerability, weakness, and poverty to proclaim the peaceful kingdom. In this kingdom to which all are invited, forgiveness, putting down the sword, nonviolence, and loving one another are foundational. The invitation calls for deep and hard work.
One should not pray “thy kingdom come on earth . . .” if one doesn’t believe it. The hard work of the kingdom calls us to work through our deep fear and prejudices. Jesus taught and lived the way of peace, and it led him to his execution. This is to know the depth to which we are called to peace and nonviolence.
But the execution is not the final say: If we wish to continue the work of the Prince of Peace, we must work to make active nonviolence real in our lives and in our world. The kingdom will not come by waiting for it, but by following and acting on the deepest longing for peace in our hearts.
Besides the faith underpinning of the work for nuclear weapon disarmament, there is the legal reality that nuclear weapons are illegal under U.S. and humanitarian laws. The Hague Agreements, the Geneva Protocols, the U.N. Charter and the Nuremberg Principles to which the United States is a signatory all outlaw nuclear weapons because they are indiscriminate killers of civilians and because they destroy the environment and infrastructure of cities and civilizations.
Article 6, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states that all treaties and agreements made by the United States with other nations become the supreme law of the land. These laws are incorporated into our domestic laws.
In addition, the U.S. war crimes law outlaws the use of weapons of indiscriminate killing. At the recent trial in which I and four companions were convicted of entering the Stategic Weapons Facility Pacific at Bangor, where the nuclear warheads for the Navy’s Trident subs are stored, we were forbidden the use of humanitarian law and necessity as a defense.
One further note: Nuclear weapon disarmament does not mean that the United States gets rid of all nuclear weapons at once, but that we move in good faith toward disarmament along with other countries. While the United States has decreased the number of its nuclear weapons, it has continued to refurbish and rebuild plants and newer weapons.
There are many preliminary things to be done toward disarmament. The United States could ratify the comprehensive test ban treaty, take the weapons off of hair-trigger readiness, initiate a no-first-strike agreement, stop uranium mining and enhancement, and and ratify the new START treaty. The United States could begin to train workers in the dismantling of nuclear weapons and facilities, and begin to offer job training for converting things of war into things of peace and our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
--The Rev. Bill Bichsel, S.J., of Tacoma is a Roman Catholic priest who has led protests against nuclear weapons since the 1970s.
2.
Editorial
WHO'S GUARDING THE NUKES AT KITSAP-BANGOR?
News Tribune (Tacoma, WA)
December 15, 2010
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/12/15/1465580/whos-guarding-the-nukes-at-kitsap.html
If only we lived in the world that Father Bichsel & Associates think we live in.
It’s a world where -- but for misunderstandings and fears -- lions would lie down with lambs. Dictatorships would be shamed into disarmament by the moral examples of noble nations. It’s not the world we share with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il, unfortunately -- but wouldn’t it be nice?
Bill Bichsel, a Jesuit priest from Tacoma, has succeeded in getting himself incarcerated yet again -- along with four others -- for acts of civil disobedience at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, where naval nuclear weapons are stored. The five cut their way through multiple fences and poured blood near the weapons bunkers in November 2009; they were convicted Monday of conspiracy, trespassing, and destruction of government property.
In theory, the crimes merit 10 years of hard prison time. But these five are religious pacifists and patently harmless. None is younger than 60; Bichsel and Sister Anne Montgomery are octogenarians.
Some reasonable punishment is due. True practitioners of civil disobedience accept civil penalties as the price of pointing out the world’s evils.
Nuclear weapons are in fact evil. They have no battlefield value; in the hands of ordinary governments -- as opposed to nihilists, terrorists, and fanatics -- they are, at best, instruments of intimidation.
But in the real world -- as opposed to the wishful-thinking world -- intimidation is sometimes the only means of maintaining peace.
It would be a grand thing for the world’s nuclear powers and would-be nuclear powers to lay down their weapons and never build another one. But general disarmament would only invite the likes of Iran and North Korea to deploy their own nukes; the noble governments would then promptly beat their plowshares back into swords.
Human nature often isn’t pretty, but it can’t be pretended away. Until the advent of the peaceable kingdom, nuclear arms are likely to remain a necessary evil.
Still, these five demonstrators have done everyone a very real service by embarrassing whoever is responsible for security at the base. The protesters appear to have been within the Navy’s restricted zone for hours as they cut through fences and penetrated to within a stone’s throw of the bunkers.
The bunkers themselves would have been a far tougher nut to crack, but you’d like to think a nuclear weapons depot is surrounded by crack guards and multiple perimeters that actually keep people out.
Navy and Marine Corps, take note. If terrorists don’t come knocking, Father Bichsel will.
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