November 5, 2006
By Neville Watson
I appreciate this opportunity to give an update on Iraq. Because of my interest in Iraq and the people I met when I was there, I have kept myself pretty much up to date on the situation and appreciate the opportunity of sharing my reading, research and thinking with you.
Let me now say what I always say when talking about Iraq
(1) I don’t expect you to agree with me. I have no desire to convince you of the validity of my ideas. I want only to share them with you.
(2) I am no expert on Iraq. Because I was in Iraq before, during and after the war doesn’t make me an expert on Iraq. I did not go to Iraq to become an expert. My 11 year grand daughter summed up the reason when she wrote in a school essay “My grandpa has gone to Baghdad to comfort the Iraqis while the Americans bomb them.” I went, as Bonhoeffer would say, to participate in the suffering of God. In the context of this morning’s sermon, I went there to pray. I went because there comes a time when it is better to be a victim rather than an accomplice, when the issues are so clear to you that you would rather be in the country where the bombs are dropping rather than in the country responsible for the bombing. At the service before I left the Minister with whom I am associated blew out the candle, handed it to me and said “Go and light this candle in Iraq. Be our man in Baghdad.” And this I tried to do. But this doesn’t make me an expert!
