“I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq,” Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) told Bob Schieffer. “And to me, that would include a strike into… over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.”

Lieberman’s claim is that Iran is a national security threat to the United States and to Israel. But the Orthodox Jewish Senator does not seem to speak for all people of faith when it comes to advocacy regarding this potential new war.

CodePINK, an anti war group of feminists, attempted to bring a delegation of Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli, and Jewish activists who oppose the war in Iran to a meeting with Senator Lieberman. The Senator originally agreed to the meeting but backed out at the last minute. CodePINK did not, they showed up at the Hart Senate Office Building with at least 100 people ready to meet with the Senator – the antiwar group was met with a particularly hostile staff member who asked the police to ensure that all the activists leave the office. In compromise, the Senator’s staffer agreed to meet with three of the activists if everyone else would leave the office.

Here is what some of the activists had to say:

Kit Kimberly, a spiritual progressive, told me that “Without peace, spiritual people cannot be spiritual.” Similarly, Unitarian Universalist lay leader, Carol Waser, recently returned from Iran on an interfaith delegation sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. She went to Iran after feeling like Iraq was becoming more and more of a lost cause – but that stopping war in Iran before it starts is a feasible plan. She told me that it was her faith that drives her to strongly oppose Senator Lieberman’s call to bomb Iran.

Many people of faith oppose Senator Lieberman’s plan. The American Friends Service Committee, The Episcopal Church USA, National Council of Churches, Pax Christi USA, the Methodist Church, The Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Mennonite Central Committee have been actively involved in pushing for dialogue on Iran.  Additionally, the Reconstructionist Rabbincal Association (the rabbinic arm of the Reconstructionist Jewish Movement) stated in a resolution in March of 2007 that “a military strike against Iran would only result in another military, political and humanitarian crisis and would further strengthen Ahmadinejad’s regime and radical elements within Iranian society.” The RRA is the largest Jewish group to officially oppose US military action in Iran.

There are other practical reasons to avoid a war in Iran. Martha Perez, a political science student at American University explained that already with a War in Iraq, many students are struggling financially as they have seen federal financial aid dwindle. Undoubtedly, the military costs should the US invade Iran would economically hurt America’s students even more.

The general call to action at Senator Lieberman’s office was to stop the next war now. Iranian activist Dorna Mohaghegh, "the real question is not if Iran with a bomb is a threat – Iranians don’t want Ahmadinejad with a bomb, as it would be Iranians, not Americans who would be hurt most. The real question to ask is what the result of the US going to War with Iran will be. Will it simply get rid of their President, or will it provide an impetus for Iranians to rally around their unpopular President in self defense?"

Perhaps the wounds are still a bit too deep for me to bring this up - rest assured, I am not saying this as a political exploitation, using a tragedy to highlight a point; I am simply saying this to draw a comparison.

What happened at Virginia Tech is a heartbreaking tragedy, I will never, ever deny that. The time to grieve is now, and the nation will continue to grieve.

Consider this, however: at the time of this being written, 3311 Americans have died in Iraq, in addition to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Unlike the war in Vietnam, Americans seem to be removed from this war. They seem to be going on with normalcy as Americans are losing their lives every day.

The truth is that the loss of lives at Virginia Tech isn't any more or less tragic than the lost of lives in Iraq. Those who have died in Iraq also had hopes and dreams, parents and loved ones, lovers and friends. It breaks my heart that we mourn the deaths of 32 Americans, but we turn a blind-eye to the thousands of other Americans, simply because we're so far removed from them.

It is my hope that, through the tragedy, we can realize that the loss of any human life to a needless cause should be a travesty, and should be mourned. Only then, I hope, can public perception of the war in Iraq be more negative. If an angry mob of right-doers could take Don Imus off the air, I hope such a mob can also end the war in Iraq.

The only thing, though, is that it seems almost classless for us to be speaking about this now -- at a time when there is still so much hurt going on and so much grieving still to be done.

But either we make the wounds deeper and make the American people see, or they'll become stoic again after the wounds have healed. Thoughts?