War and Conflict

These excerpts are from a speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination. While the focus is the Vietnam War, it offers us a perspective on our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that cannot be ignored.

Over 1300 people, mostly boys, were stacked like logs into six army trucks. They were placed face down with their hands tied behind their backs, one on top of another, making a pile of four or five persons deep.

"O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear God. For God is well-acquainted with all that ye do." (Quran 5:8)

The long-awaited second act of President George Bush's worldwide `war against terrorism opened last week with the official announcement that 650 US troops would conduct `military exercises in the southern Philippines against the Muslim rebel movement, Abu Sayyaf.