Speech for the third anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. St Luke’s Church, Portland, Oregon. By Adele Kubein This speech may be used for any peace oriented purpose, as long as the location, date, and author are published with it.

I despaired when I sat down to write this speech. I became mired in the blood that is flowing in Iraq, and depressed that for three years I have been writing speeches. But then I thought of the hundreds of people I met in Crawford Texas, who came there because they felt they had to do something for the cause of peace. We are winning, the tide is turning, and it is because of you.

My personal loss is the loss of all Iraqi and American families, enmeshed in a senseless war that is based on lies. I talk of my own personal loss, with the understanding that I am talking about the losses of countless mothers, the lost potential of countless senseless deaths and maimings.

All mothers have great hopes when we bear children. Universally we hope that our children will lead a life better than ours, that they will have the opportunity to flower to their fullest potential in a world that nurtures them.

I was no different; I raised my daughter to respect life, to be kind and gentle. We moved to the country so that she would grow up in a tranquil, natural place. Many times she came to me with small creatures cradled in her hands. She always released them unhurt. I never dreamed that those gentle hands would someday cradle a fifty caliber gun. That would have been the vilest nightmare I could have imagined.

As she grew we hiked, biked, and climbed mountains together. We ran together in the Alvord Desert and touched the clouds on Mt. Hood. We lived as people everywhere dream of living, in a peaceful, bountiful world. We knew others had less, and we worked at being good people: we helped in the ways we could.
The reason she joined the National Guard was to help, and that was the lie she believed the day she was sent to Iraq. That she would go to help, to build schools, and make friends. And that is what she tried to do. But soldiers are not trained to make friends, they are trained to kill. That is the brutal fact of things.

She was horrified at the things that were happening to Iraqi families, and since she could do nothing to stop the horror, she withdrew, insulated herself until the day she took someone’s life.
I cannot describe the shock and regret that day she called me sobbing to tell me that she killed a young man. The knowledge that we would never be able to go back to that bright time. The knowledge that some other mother lost her son, and that my daughter was losing her soul. How could she live with it?

She was injured in Iraq, and lost the use of her leg, her hearing, and for a time, her humanity. She is home now and is refreshing her spirit. She reflects on the institution of war, on the society that sacrifices its children to kill other children. On the circumstances she was swept into. She tries to find a peace with herself, to understand a reason for what is. We will never again run together in the desert air, or climb mountains, but we hold each other and try to find a way to make sense of it.

We, you and I, have allowed this to happen; now it is to us to stop it. I cannot free myself of the cries of families in Iraq, of the hot tears of my friends who have lost their sons. I cannot stop working for peace for I must redeem myself for my complacency. We have allowed a new generation to return to us with death in their souls, and it is the soul of America that must bear the stain. As long as we cling to the notion that there is such a thing as a just war we will not grow. War is never just because innocent people die, and innocent people become killers.

Lives depend on what we do. Raise your voices. We cannot enjoy our blessings unless we make the utmost effort to stop this horror. Thank your for sharing this burden, together we can change this course.
AK