Gunning for peace

Katharine Gun, the British intelligence employee who bravely revealed how the US was spying on Security Council members during the debate over Iraq last spring, was due in court today, January 19, for a pretrial hearing on a charge of violating the Official Secrets Act. She faces up to two years in prison.

Ms. Gun is being allowed by British courts to plead an unusual "defense of necessity." She has said that her disclosures were justified because they revealed "serious wrongdoing on the part of the U.S. government," and because she was sincerely trying to prevent the "wide-scale death and casualties" that would result from a war that was "illegal."

So writes Bob Herbert in the New York Times. While the case has gotten almost zero notice in the US, she does have American supporters, including Rev. Jesse Jackson and Daniel Ellsberg, who said he wished he had released what became known as the Pentagon Papers long before he did and praised Ms. Gun for acting when there was a chance to make a real difference.

Last year, someone asked me what I would do differently if I had it to do all over again. I answered, in part,

I've never regretted that "I took the [road] less traveled by," even though other choices might have made my life in some ways easier. (Not that I've had a hard life by almost any measure; there are untold millions - hundreds of millions - in comparison to who I have lived the life of Riley.) My regrets don't lie in what I did but in what I didn't do; I didn't pursue my road hard enough, with enough courage, with enough strength; I let timidity override my conscience on too many occasions.

A failing to which Ms. Gun did not fall victim.

Those who know me know I'm not a believer, but still I'll say "Blessed are the peacemakers" - Matthew 5:9.