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National Council of Churches welcomes end of Iraq War,
but its joy is muted by the war’s staggering human cost


Washington, October 22, 2011 – The staff leader of the National Council of Churches said he was gratified by President Obama’s announcement that U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq before the end of 2011.


But the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC general secretary, said the celebration of the war’s end will be muted by “memories of the staggering cost of the war,” and by growing national uneasiness with “America’s other war in Afghanistan.”


Kinnamon said the leaders of many member communions of the NCC opposed the war in Iraq before it started, and warned that it would be “unjustified and inexcusable.” Once the war began in 2003, the churches called for an early end to the fighting and declared that the war violates “clear ethical norms,” Kinnamon said.


Kinnamon said that as the war comes to a close, NCC leaders “prayerfully uphold the thousands of citizens of both the United States and Iraq who have sacrificed so much for Iraq to have a better future.”


The NCC also prays “in unison with our sisters and brothers in the churches of Iraq, and assure them will continue to work in partnership with them and the Iraqi people as they work to rebuild their country and society.”


The full text of Kinnamon’s statement follows:


As gratifying as it is to hear President Obama’s announcement that the Iraq War is coming to a close, it cannot dim our memories of the staggering cost of the war. We think of the nearly 4,500 Americans killed, or the over 32,000 wounded. We remember the untold number of Iraqis who lost their lives during the war. And we cannot forget America’s other war in Afghanistan, which goes on after more than ten years.


In the months preceding the War in Iraq in 2003, leaders National Council of Churches member communions warned that such a war would be unjustified and inexcusable. In a 2007 Pastoral Message issued by the General Assembly of the NCC and Church World Service, the churches said, “Whether one views the war in Iraq from a peace church perspective, or from that of the churches informed by a ‘just war’ tradition, it is clear to the member churches that this war violates the churches’ clear ethical norms.”


Today as the war nears its end, we prayerfully uphold the thousands of citizens of both the United States and Iraq who have sacrificed so much for Iraq to have a better future. We pray in unison with our sisters and brothers in the churches of Iraq, and assure them will continue to work in partnership with them and the Iraqi people as they work to rebuild their country and society.


We thank God that the war is coming to an end, but our joy is muted by the fact that this unnecessary war droned on so long and cost so much in lives and property. It is muted by the ongoing war in Afghanistan – the longest war in U.S. history -- and we reiterate the call in 2010 of the NCC/CWS general assembly that this war, too, must end.”


The National Council of Churches rejoices that the men and women who have risked their lives and livelihoods to serve in this war will return home for the holidays, and we pray that they will resume their lives in safety, peace and economic security, while praying that the death and destruction from this conflict will serve as a reminder of the result of war, and cause the seeking of alternative ways of seeking a just peace.



Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.


White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson


NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell),
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