Peace Walker Josh Steiber visits Rochester

Josh Steiber was in middle school when September 11 happened. Living in nearby Maryland, he saw the hole in the Pentagon. Never questioning the fact that the hole was much too small to have been made by a commercial jet, he bought into the rhetoric. Our leaders told us the only proper response was one of military force. Josh joined the Army immediately after graduating from high school. “My first duty was to protect my family and my country.”

But Josh began to have questions immediately after deployment to Iraq. We were killing as a celebration, using violence to justify our point of view. People had not just a willingness but a desire to kill. Our strategy to stop terrorism was to be bigger, badder terrorists. “All my beliefs and assumptions fell apart.” I saw atrocities being committed by our own people. I tried to report them. They wanted the names of those doing the act. But when I named the names of the Captain or Colonel who gave the orders, they refused to process the report. They only wanted to blame the people at the bottom.

Our leaders seem to think that force is the only way to solve things. Drop a bomb or pull a trigger and the “problem” goes away. Or so it is believed. In truth, the only times we were really successful is when we cooperated with the Iraqis. He gave an example of troops going into an Iraqi town to search out alleged terrorists. We arrested and detained a man. He turned out to be not a terrorist but the town's mayor. So we let him go. By returning this innocent man his freedom, and earning his respect, he was able to help us find and prosecute the real terrorists. This was an exceptional situation. In most cases when Americans went into an Iraqi town or city, they would be asked by the locals to leave. They would refuse and press on. This turns the locals against the Americans, who are now viewed as oppressors. Many locals become resistance fighters and often resort to the tactics of terrorism. The escalation of violence continues. Josh asks “what if soldiers from another country did to us what we are doing to the Iraqis?” “How many of us would become terrorists?”

Steiber's decision to enlist was strongly influenced by his Evangelical religious upbringing. “We belonged to a mega-church. I went to a religious high school.” We were taught that some are purely evil and must be eliminated at all cost. The idea of a “Just War” was central. This idea states that our political and military leaders are put in power by God and that we must obey them without question. If this sounds like something familiar out of history it should. During the Middle Ages it was known as the Divine Right of Kings.

Josh is now honorably discharged from the military and has forsaken much of his religious upbringing. “I don't associate myself with any religion, I try to be like Jesus Christ.” I was discharged as a Conscientious Objector. You don't have to be religious to be a CO, just have the conscience and conviction equivalent of religious belief. Timing is key. A CO claim can take 10 months to over a year. Many Objectors make the mistake of not starting their claim until redeployment is imminent. They may find themselves deployed, in harm's way, with no weapon once their claim is approved. Deployed CO's may be shunned by their comrades and relegated to unpleasant tasks. “My parents helped me out. They did a lot of the research while I was still on active duty.”

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“We need to not only end the war, but to end the mindset that got us into the war.” Those words come from candidate Barack Obama in 2008. That is what we need to do, says Josh. That is the purpose of my walk across the country. Josh plans to walk 15 to 20 miles a day. He started last May and hopes to complete his mission in November. The mission is to replace the mindset of fear and hatred with one of peace and love. “What is love?” Josh was asked. It is an internal reality that exists beyond the physical reality. Am I going to experience that reality or remain in “their” reality of fear? Love is contagious.

Those wishing to follow Josh on his trek can do so at http://contagiousloveexperiment.wordpress.com/