Spreading true global values

The CP reports on a group of Canadian and U.S. peace activists trying to share a message of peace in Iraq. It might seem futile, but the response from Iraqis seems to be largely positive:

As a volunteer with Christian Peacemaker Teams, a Canada-U.S. organization, Rollins believes pacifists should be ready to risk their lives for peace just as soldiers risk their lives in war.

Rollins and a handful of colleagues live in a Baghdad neighbourhood among ordinary Iraqis, far from the fortified green zone where the coalition headquarters is located...

They've earned enough respect that the group now gets requests for assistance from the UN and Amnesty International, whose staffers are generally confined to the green zone...

"The Iraqi people always tell us, 'Your job is not here, your job is back there, in your countries, telling people what is happening and educating them.' We've worked pretty hard on that."

The article notes that while the activists are constantly in danger based on the chaos in the region, nobody appears to have attacked them specifically even through they're among the few foreigners willing to go beyond the Green Zone. Rollins' experiences discussed in the article should make clear that large numbers of Iraqis are entirely willing to cooperate with people who genuinely have their best interest at heart, and that even the insurgency is based far more on fighting occupation than on any general hatred for the West.

Meanwhile, the Iraqis who have dealt with Rollins have sent another important message: that peace will ultimately only come from change in American public knowledge. This is less based on a need for public opinion to change than based on a need for the political system to start acknowledging the majority view. But either way, the disaster that is Iraq will only improve if even people who have backed Bush to this point can be convinced that he's ultimately the greatest threat to long-term peace in Iraq. We can only wish Rollins all the best in the effort, and do our best to pass the message along.