This 'Sword of Truth' could be exactly what it

claims to be: a muslimist jihadista organization.

But has anyone considered the very small but

still very real outside-chance possibility that it

could be a false-flag black-ops death squad working for the Bushite administration and the

Coalition of the Willing? The diligence and effectiveness of the Tom Fox group in finding

disappeared people and uncovering the very atrocities that the Bushite authorities are trying

to keep hidden make me wonder whether the Bushite

authorities have decided to treat Tom Fox like

some kind of al Jazeera journalist.

Whatever tapes this 'Sword of Truth' group

releases should be studied very carefully by

forensic Arabists and forensic Islamologists to

see if certain inconsistencies of language, symbology, etc., cast doubt on these 'Swordsmen

of Truth' being what they claim to be. It would

also be helpful if al Jazeera would reveal to

trusted International Authorities, such as the

Red Cross and the UN, everything it knows about

the entire chain-of-custody of this video, from

the final messenger-boy who gave it to al Jazeera

all the way back upstream, or at least as far

back upstream as traceable.

I am not saying that I have leaped to the conlusion that the 'Sword of Truth' is a well

disguised Negroponte Death Squad. I would just

like to be sure that possibility is definitively

ruled out, definitively.

I have a friend who is working with CPT in Colombia, and the work is dangerous every day--there is a very real chance that she could be killed for no reason by a 15-year old with a machine gun. But the chance of death does not, as Michelle Goldberg writes in her article, make the action naive. Cliff Kindy's words from the article really capture the sentiment of my friend in CPT, and other peace activists I know: "One of the things we need to learn from the military is that there are risks that are important to take -- risks worth putting our lives on the line for," he says. "If, in our peacemaking, we can't have that same level of commitment, that would be sad."

Those of us who believe dearly in something that seems naive must damn the torpedoes and go full speed ahead, to misuse a cliche. In order to make peace, individual people must show that progress can be made with peaceful methods. These CPTers have not ended the occupation of Iraq, but they have helped dozens of Iraqi citizens in the midst of stunning violence, which is quite a feat.

Jesus calls people not only to put down their swords, but to put down their shields as well; this is a difficult thing to hear, and an even more difficult thing to believe.

Guess what? Bush is NOT responsible for every bad thing that has ever happened in the universe, no matter how much some very dim people would wish to believe it. This is a black-and-white example of why Muslims are dangerous and can never be negotiated with or trusted --- they will not refrain from taking advantage even of foolishly idealistic pacifists who only want to bend over and take it from the most violent group of people on Earth. They don't care if you are Christian and liberal and sympathize with them, you're just another infidel standing in the way of Muslim world domination.

Comments like Rush Limbaugh's really show the difference between those who claim to speak in the name of "traditional Christian values" and what those values actually mean in practice. If Jesus were alive today, I firmly believe he'd be over there in Iraq with Tom Fox and the rest of the CPTers, practicing forgiveness in the heart of hatred -- whether you choose to call that "bending over and taking it" or "turning the other cheek."

"Rush Limbaugh, for one, was pleased by the Christian Peacemakers' kidnapping, saying, 'Well, here's why I like it. I like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers are shown reality.'"

Well, it's always nice to get the opinion of a drug addict on these situations. Interesting, isn't it, that some on the right think that all they have to do is to apply the "leftist" or "liberal" label, and then it's Miller Time. Yes, once they've applied the label -- whether or not it really applies -- the "leftist" in question can be utterly dismissed. He or she is outside the camp, beyond the scope of normal human concern.

But were I Rush I might be a little more restrained in my condemnations, keeping in mind a passage from the gospel: "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned . . . For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

I am humbled and deeply moved by the witness of these folks. I am convinced that the reason that we are alive and walking around is due to the faith and lives of such people.This is faith.The rest is commentary...

I will begin praying today for Tom Fox and those with him in the CPT team. What they are doing is just exactly what Jesus would do in a similar situation. I will also begin praying for Rush Limbaugh that his heart may be touched and his attitude be changed toward those who are doing the real work of creating peace in a country torn by anger, rage and revenge. Thank God there are people like Tom and his colleagues who are willing to do the work of peacemaking in such a difficult situation.

The illogical views of right-wing pundits don't surprise me anymore. When Rush Limbaugh says that he's glad that the members of CPT were kidnapped because they were "shown reality", it absurdly implies that they were not seeing reality in the months leading up to the kidnapping while living in an unprotected apartment in Baghdad. Are we to believe that Rush Limbaugh knows more about reality sitting in his radio studio than those who are living on the ground in Baghdad?

But, like I said, this doesn't surprise me any more. Folowing 9/11, any talk of peaceful action, responding to human rights abuses in Palestine or the like, was labeled by right-wing pundits as "just what the terrorists want." Of course, there is nothing that terrorists want more than to spread chaos and violence. Osama Bin Laden certainly got exactly what he wanted when the US invaded Iraq.

This is why the actions of CPT make so much sense. Respond to violence with peace. It is, of course, the actions of terrorists that we find so abhorrent, so why duplicate them. It is also why we can expect peace activists in Iraq to die for what they believe. They pose a greater threat to terrorists than any invading army ever could.

Because of my own Christian faith, I hope for the release of the CPT activists. I think it would truly be a miracle.