Reflection by Glenine Hamlyn

Now, at the start of the new year, Germany is holding its breath to see whether the present government will sanction Germany’s involvement in a war against Iraq, should it come to one. The coalition of Social Democrats and Greens campaigned successfully for re-election in September by stressing categorically that Germany would under no circumstances take part in such a war. By the end of the year that had become a qualified "no", excluding neither flights of manned AWAC surveillance aircraft over Iraq nor US war-related activities at military bases in Germany. The "no" simply meant that no German troops would be deployed on the ground. I wonder how long it will take, how much repetition of the same litany, before the outrage caused by the deception dies down and majority discourse is lined by phrases neatly packaging the formerly unacceptable.

Repetition can engender neither truth nor moral legitimacy. Through repetition the arbitrary construction of enemy images becomes demagogic, and when repetition is used by politicians to sell broken promises, our inherent trust in democratic processes is violated. Discerning and exposing this kind of manipulation is arduous and tedious, but it is what Christian communicators are called to do, and indeed in all religious persuasions as well as in secular contexts there are dedicated groups and individuals doing just that. Strengthening their efforts and our own has got to be one of the priorities of the moment.

Glenine Hamlyn is Secretary of International Communication Programmes in EED (Church Development Service, Germany). She has a background in publishing and theology.