Tag Archives: Vietnam War

Prevarication: the U.S. and chemical weapons

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“What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear. The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable. And despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable.” – Secretary of State John Kerry, August 28, 2013

What happened in Syria is a “moral obscenity”, but there’s MUCH more to the story and it’s not the first moral obscenity. History is a stern teacher.

Question 1: Have chemical weapons ever been used by the United States of America?

Answer: Yes. The United States used Agent Orange and Napalm, burning the flesh off innocent civilians as well as soldiers of the Viet Cong, and destroying habitats in Vietnam and in Laos.

Question 2: Is the tragic use of chemical weapons in Syria unique or an historical watershed?

Answer: No. Click HERE for the history of U.S. Administration’s supply of Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War when Saddam was still a U.S. ally, and the number of times the U.S. has chosen to look the other way when chemical weapons have been used.

Compassion is in order. So is truth. Ignoring the history is a form of official prevarication. Prevarication is a gentle word for half a lie. We deserve better and so does the world.

Questions 3: Can assurance be given that there will no further military consequences to a narrow strategic strike?

Answer: How can any such assurance be given when there are at least two parties involved and likely more? Syria will not lie back without rocket strikes at U.S. warships, and then….. the game is on. Seems like moral obscenity, prevarication, and high risk no matter where one looks. Let those with clean hands cast the first missile… or work non-violently to stop the cycle of violence.

“It’s Muhammed Ali!”

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I only saw him once. Close up.

Holy Angels Catholic Church

Holy Angels Catholic Church, the African-American Catholic Church in South Side Chicago, was packed. Father George Clements, a bold community leader on the South Side, had convened the community meeting.

I don’t recall why we were there that afternoon. I only remember who was there.

Two pews in front of us sat a Michelangelo-chiseled figure of flesh and blood in a black suit. Massive square shoulders, thick muscled neck, beyond regal…a Greek god, Atlas perhaps, sitting erect and still, near the back of the crowed church. There was no mistaking who he was.

Muhammed Ali

“It’s Cassius Clay!” I blurted out to my fiancee…in what I thought was a whisper… pointing to the large man two rows in front of us.

“MUHAMMED ALI!” came the woman’s corrective voice from behind us. The young, embarrassed, white Christian seminarian thanked her, apologized, and sat quietly the rest of the afternoon.

Ali, the World Champion, had changed his name from Cassius Clay. He had joined the Nation of Islam. Ali refused military induction as a conscientious objector. His conviction would overturned by the U.S.Supreme Court. At the time he refused to step forward for induction to serve in the Viet Nam War, he asked:

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”“

Father George H. Clements went on to become the first African-American in the Archdiocese of Chicago to be appointed to the position of Pastor.

Father George H. Clements at Mass

As Pastor of Holy Angels, Fr. George Clements moved a statue of St. Anthony and set up an altar honoring Dr. King following Dr. King’s assassination. When the archdiocese expressed its disapproval, Fr. Clements refused to reconsider.

“Acclamatio populorum—”the people acclaim a saint,” he said. “If the cardinal wants it down, he’ll have to take it down himself.”

The Martin Luther King, Jr. statue remained in place.

Fr. Clements would later become famous as the first priest to adopt a child. He added a new title -“Dad” – as the adoptive father of four African-American children, and founded One Church – One Child, a movement in his parish inviting African-American families to adopt homeless African-American children. The program became nation-wide and still exists today.