CONGRESSMAN PETER ROSKAM'S NOVEMBER, 2008 REPORT CARD ON IRAQ WAR
Congressman Peter Roskam
150 S. Bloomingdale Road, Suite 200
Bloomingdale, IL 60108
Dear Congressman Roskam,
On November 6 you addressed the “Faith and Culture” class at Wheaton Academy. According to the Chicago Tribune, Principal Steve Bult summarized your visit thusly:
“The importance of a genuine faith in real world situations is what this class is all about, and Roskam is living this as a US Congressman. Our students will grow into positions of leadership and influence, and need to know how to work with a Christ centered attitude in whatever they do.”
I presume you approve of the Principal’s glowing tribute to your “Christ centered attitude” as our Sixth District Congressman. I am curious however, whether that “Christ centered attitude” leaves room to support and fund, at three hundred millions of borrowed dollars daily, a made up and therefore, criminal war in Iraq? Over a million Iraqis are dead in that made up war, Congressman. Over four thousand, three hundred American military and civilians are also dead. Doesn’t that contradict your faith in spite of your denial that it doesn’t when questioned by a student?
Please enlighten me what is Christian about maintaining this destructive military enterprise which one could argue is the work of the Devil rather than the work of God? Is it a Christian concept to trumpet pre-emptive war while our homeland sinks into economic collapse from neglect? Does lying to start a war against a country not at war with America demonstrate practicing Christianity? And if the answers to these three questions are “nothing”, “no” and “no”, shouldn’t a freshman Congressman with a Christ centered attitude have stood up on day one in his new role and said so as loudly and passionately as possible?
Oh, I forgot. If you had done so you would have immediately been excommunicated from the war party, composed of Republicans and Democrats alike, who have a vested interest in endless war and all the power and riches it showers down on them.
When you ran for Congress in 2006 you had a dilemma regarding this wholly un-Christian way of conducting foreign policy. You could have followed your Christ centered attitude and called it the crime you knew it was and demanded its end. That didn’t take physical courage, Congressman, it took moral courage. I know from the experience of exercising that moral courage, it does not come easily and does not come without cost. But to live in this country at this time requires that it be done, as surely as it needed to be done during the Vietnam War over forty years ago.
What you did, instead, was a clever debating trick. You offered at the College of DuPage campaign debate that you weren’t responsible for the war since you weren’t in Congress when it was launched. Translation: Not my problem. Then you said you didn’t have a strategy to end it, just the goal that it end well. Translation: We must continue the war forever, if necessary, and I will not rock the boat by opposing it.
Sir, you need to re-visit your faith regarding this critical issue that is contributing to America’s decline, maybe even, its demise. As our Congressman you have a lot more influence on this policy than the 700,000 of us mere mortals in the Sixth District who are not in Congress.
How about starting with Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God?”
Respectfully yours,
Walt Zlotow
IL Sixth District Constituent
150 S. Bloomingdale Road, Suite 200
Bloomingdale, IL 60108
Dear Congressman Roskam,
On November 6 you addressed the “Faith and Culture” class at Wheaton Academy. According to the Chicago Tribune, Principal Steve Bult summarized your visit thusly:
“The importance of a genuine faith in real world situations is what this class is all about, and Roskam is living this as a US Congressman. Our students will grow into positions of leadership and influence, and need to know how to work with a Christ centered attitude in whatever they do.”
I presume you approve of the Principal’s glowing tribute to your “Christ centered attitude” as our Sixth District Congressman. I am curious however, whether that “Christ centered attitude” leaves room to support and fund, at three hundred millions of borrowed dollars daily, a made up and therefore, criminal war in Iraq? Over a million Iraqis are dead in that made up war, Congressman. Over four thousand, three hundred American military and civilians are also dead. Doesn’t that contradict your faith in spite of your denial that it doesn’t when questioned by a student?
Please enlighten me what is Christian about maintaining this destructive military enterprise which one could argue is the work of the Devil rather than the work of God? Is it a Christian concept to trumpet pre-emptive war while our homeland sinks into economic collapse from neglect? Does lying to start a war against a country not at war with America demonstrate practicing Christianity? And if the answers to these three questions are “nothing”, “no” and “no”, shouldn’t a freshman Congressman with a Christ centered attitude have stood up on day one in his new role and said so as loudly and passionately as possible?
Oh, I forgot. If you had done so you would have immediately been excommunicated from the war party, composed of Republicans and Democrats alike, who have a vested interest in endless war and all the power and riches it showers down on them.
When you ran for Congress in 2006 you had a dilemma regarding this wholly un-Christian way of conducting foreign policy. You could have followed your Christ centered attitude and called it the crime you knew it was and demanded its end. That didn’t take physical courage, Congressman, it took moral courage. I know from the experience of exercising that moral courage, it does not come easily and does not come without cost. But to live in this country at this time requires that it be done, as surely as it needed to be done during the Vietnam War over forty years ago.
What you did, instead, was a clever debating trick. You offered at the College of DuPage campaign debate that you weren’t responsible for the war since you weren’t in Congress when it was launched. Translation: Not my problem. Then you said you didn’t have a strategy to end it, just the goal that it end well. Translation: We must continue the war forever, if necessary, and I will not rock the boat by opposing it.
Sir, you need to re-visit your faith regarding this critical issue that is contributing to America’s decline, maybe even, its demise. As our Congressman you have a lot more influence on this policy than the 700,000 of us mere mortals in the Sixth District who are not in Congress.
How about starting with Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God?”
Respectfully yours,
Walt Zlotow
IL Sixth District Constituent
posted by Walt Zlotow at 6:29 PM
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