"For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Is. 2:3-4 & Micah 4:2-3).

The words of the prophecy are beautiful as well as poetic. The metaphor is well known throughout the civilized world: swords and spears represent war while plowshares and pruning hooks represent peace. When the instruments of war are no longer needed they will be converted into farm implements and people will be able to live in contentment in their own places, tending to their own lives. Right and wrong will be judged - taking away the sphere of oppression - and there will be no conflict.

Ironically, these words appear on a bronze statue at the United Nations Plaza in New York City. “ Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares”, a sculpture by Evgeniy Vuchetich, is a gift presented to the United Nations on December 4, 1959, by the then Soviet Union. The bronze statue represents a man who holds a hammer in one hand and in the other, a sword which he is making into a plowshare, symbolizing man’s desire to put an end to war and convert the means of destruction into creative tools for the benefit of all mankind.

The United States has turned plowshares into swords by initiating a conflict that many feel is both unjust and unjustified. Euphemistically, the administration has named this conflict, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” but realistically we are engaged in a war against Iraq.

Seemingly, it is easier to take up arms against an opponent than it is to find the words which are required for diplomatic relations. Our leaders tell us that they will not make decisions based on the forum of public opinion, but this is a democracy, our leaders are elected officials, and for months our citizens have been demonstrating in the streets to protest the call to arms as a solution. Have our leaders become so insular that our opinions matter only at the ballot box? The rationale for ending a feeble attempt at diplomacy is that we must free the Iraqis from the tyranny of their government. Should we not be looking into our own selves before we transform this country from a republic to an empire?

There are so many contradictions in our practices versus our preachments that we need to become more introspective. To end a war, we used weapons of mass destruction on our enemies, claiming that it would save the lives of many American service men. That was true, although we destroyed countless innocent civilians, many of them for generations to come. We interned Japanese Americans and now there is talk of interrogating thousands of American Muslims who have the misfortune to have not wisely chosen their ancestors.

The United States is a country of immigrants. When the Pilgrims first landed on these shores they brought many of their beliefs from their country of birth and this nation went through a period of growing pains that was commendable and at times was not. The witch hunts that were carried out in the guise of religion were a time of our shame, but we got beyond that – we evolved into the democracy that we are today with great vigilance and determination. And patience – it didn’t happen overnight. We cannot change the rest of the world overnight – assuming that we have the right to change it at all.

We are the richest country in the world. We have faith in our form of government and so we support it. Revolutions do not take place in democracies; people do not overthrow governments that provide for them. We are attacking a people whose government has not only not provided for them but who has tyrannized them. We are spending billions to destroy when that same amount could be used to build. This can only be done through a diplomatic solution over a period of time.

We don’t want to sacrifice the lives of so many young Americans. How wonderful, if we could be sending them to other countries, to construct a way of life that so many of us have been fortunate enough to embrace here at home. Let us heed the words from the Bible and turn our arms into plowshares and pruning hooks and let us send in our teachers and not our soldiers. The Torah teaches us that to defend a country you need an army but to defend a free society you need schools. The Torah further tells of the rabbis who were sent through the towns of Israel to establish teachers in every place. They said to the inhabitants “Bring us the defenders of the town.” They brought them the military guard. The rabbis said, “These are not the protectors of the town but its destroyers. “ “Who then are the protectors?” asked the inhabitants. They answered "The teachers.”