By God’s grace we are blessed to see the passing of the year 2006 and the beginning of the year 2007. We have so much to thank God for. Life itself is a blessing, a blessing pregnant with possibilities and opportunities. I pray that this year we will commit our lives more passionately and deliberately to working toward God’s kingdom on earth.

A new year is not only a new period in time, but also represents a new beginning. The New Year, at least symbolically, represents a time to start over and begin afresh. Many people are happy to see the year 2006 pass. It was a difficult year around the world, our nation, our state and for so many people. Yet, even though the year has changed, our problems and challenges remain the same. The fleeting second that changed 2006 to 2007 did not do what only we, with God’s help, can do. What the New Year can and does do, however, is call us to action and responsibility.

The United States is the greatest, wealthiest and strongest nation in the world. As such we are required to lead in addressing the problems and challenges facing the world in which we live. The United States must take the lead in ending the genocide in Darfur. It is intolerable that the tremendous loss of life and suffering in Darfur continues without a greater effort to end it. The threat of nuclear proliferation from Iran and North Korea looms over the entire world. Then there is the ongoing hostility in the Middle East that daily threatens to explode causing global conflict and world poverty, particularly in Africa and other so called third world nations. The United States can and must do more to help develop Africa, which is wealthy in undeveloped resources. We must help develop those resources and not rape those nations of their wealth.

But the first responsibility the United States has is to address the debacle in Iraq. The United States bears great responsibility for what is happening in Iraq. I know some people are surprised that for the first column of this year I would focus so much attention on Iraq. But I believe that the United States will not be able to do any of the other things it needs to do, internationally or domestically until we resolve the issue of our involvement in Iraq.

The United States should never have gone into Iraq. It was not a threat to our national security and had no involvement in the attack of 9/11 or connection with Al Queda. That being said, the United States did attack Iraq and all of our looking back cannot change that. However, we can act now to get out. The President will address the nation within the next two weeks about his plans for our involvement in Iraq. All indications are that he will send additional troops in an effort to end sectarian violence. Military advisors and generals on the ground are opposed to this, as are congressional leaders of both parties and the American people. The United States suffered three thousand casualties in this war. Not one single American soldier, more importantly no father, mother, son, daughter, nephew, niece, family member, loved one or friend, should have died in Iraq. It is senseless and irresponsible for others to sacrifice their lives in a lost cause. It is lost because we cannot force Iraq to be what we want it to be. Iraq has to decide what it wants. Presently it is in a civil war. Its national government is fragile and survives only with the backing of and under the control of the Shi’a Muslims, the largest sect in the country.

President Bush refuses to even acknowledge that this is a civil war. He harbors a fantasy that Iraq will be a model of democracy for the region. Iraq is a fractured nation divided into three Muslim sects, Shia, Sunni and Shiite. While Saddam Hussein was a brutal and oppressive dictator, the country was not as violent or divided as it is today. How do we justify U.S. troops fighting in a civil war in another country? Where is the threat to U.S. security?

The United States this year will spend another $110 billion fighting in Iraq, while here at home millions go without healthcare; No Child Left Behind is not fully funded, poverty among our own people is increasing; we do not have funds for much needed domestic programs and we have a large federal deficit.

There has been much debate about the Iraq war. Yet, there has been a deafening silence from the leadership of the Black Church. It is time for the United States to get out of the debacle of Iraq, and the Black Church, which historically has been the conscience of America must speak with a united and loud voice calling on the Congress to do what the President refuses to do—begin a planned and strategic withdrawal of American troops. This must be done in 2007.