Christmas Is No Time to Talk About War and Peace

Christmas Is No Time to Talk About War and Peace

truthout Sunday 25 December 2011

by: ,

When I heard the president speak to returning troops last week, my mind flashed back to an article I once wrote for our local newspaper. Each week, a different member of the local clergy would write a column, and I had been asked to write the piece for Christmas.

That year, all I could hear was the drumbeat leading toward a war with Iraq. I racked my brain trying to think of a way to put faces on the people we were about to bomb. Looking at a nativity scene, I thought, "The people we are about to kill look like that." Maybe a reframed Christmas story could help Americans stop hating Saddam long enough to care about the people who will pay the real cost of this invasion. I submitted the following article, covering the Christmas story the way the US press was covering the buildup to the Iraq war. Looking back, I should have known what was about to happen.

Christmas Cancelled as a Security Measure

Ellis Island - The three wise men were arrested today attempting to enter the country. The Iraqi nationals were carrying massive amounts of flammable substances known as "frankincense" and "myrrh." While not explosives themselves, experts revealed that these two substances could be used as a fuse to detonate a larger bomb. The three alleged terrorists were also carrying gold, presumably to finance the rest of their mission.

Also implicated in the plot were two Palestinians named Joseph and Mary. An anonymous source close to the family overheard Mary bragging that her son would "bring down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly." In what appears to be a call to anarchy, the couple claims their son will someday "help prisoners escape captivity."

"These people match our terrorist profile perfectly," an official source reported.

All of the suspects claimed they heard angels singing of a new era of hope for the afflicted and poor. As one Wall Street official put it, "These one-world wackos are talking about overturning the entire economic and political hierarchy that holds the civilized world together. I don't care what some angel sang; God wants the status quo - by definition."

Read more at truthout Sunday 25 December 2011