Blessed are the peacemakers?

I read this article in the TorontoSun

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Coren_Michael/2006/03/25/1504645.html

Written by Michael Coren, he heavily criticizes the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) who went to Iraq to protest against the US led war of Liberation in Iraq. He makes several good points. Here's a brief summary

"What, for example, were these men doing there in the first place? They were warned of the dangers -- more than 400 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq and 55 of them murdered. It's been argued that (pro-rebel) Muslim leaders called for their release and that this proves that bridges were built. Not at all. It's easy to speak up for those who are on your side and can be used as propaganda tools. We also need to ask why the same Muslim leaders have not cried out for other hostages, most of them harmless and good men and women.

What these men did accomplish was to occupy the time and resources of numerous politicians, civil servants, aid workers and soldiers. Time and resources that could and should have been spent on other people who were in trouble. Time and resources that could have gone towards helping Iraqis, 10-20 of whom are kidnapped every day, but about whom we read and hear very little because they are not Western, middle-class and privileged.

And here surely is the point. These men were there, perhaps with noble intentions, because they could go there. Not so when Saddam was murdering Kurds or Syria wiping out villages. Because if well-meaning yet colossally naive Westerners had done so they would have been killed without a second thought.

Such "peacemakers" tend to be highly selective in where they choose to make peace.

The hostages and their organization also insisted that no force should be used in their rescue. Indeed, the leaders of the group now seem be showing a staggering lack of grace and gratitude toward those who liberated their friends. Rude and selfish.

In my view, the fetish for non-violence is in itself fundamentally un-Christian. It is entirely Christian, for example, to use force to stop a murderer or controlled violence to prevent a rape.

Also Christian, one would have thought, to take a whip to moneychangers in the Jerusalem temple!

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