Vatican says world no safer after war on Iraq

Reuters ^ | Oct 1, 04 | Reuters

[churchillbuff]

The war in Iraq has left neither Iraq nor the world a safer place, the Vatican said on Wednesday, disputing a key claim of President George W. Bush a little over a month before the Nov. 2 U.S. election.

"Everyone can see that it did not lead to a safer world, either inside or outside Iraq," Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, secretary for the Holy See's Relations with States, told the U.N. General Assembly.

"The Holy See believes it is now imperative to support the present government in its efforts to bring the country to normality and to a political system that is substantially democratic and in harmony with the values of its historic traditions," Lajolo said.

Bush has said frequently that even though the United States found none of the weapons of mass destruction he had insisted Baghdad was making, the war made the world safer because Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was no longer in power.

Pope John Paul II strongly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, telling Bush during the U.S. leader's visit to Rome last June of his concern about the "grave unrest" in the Middle East and calling for the speedy return of Iraq's sovereignty.

The United States ended its occupation of Iraq a few weeks after Bush's visit, turning power over to an interim government in anticipation of January 2005 elections.

Security in Iraq has greatly deteriorated since the handover, casting doubt on whether elections can be held.

[Petronski]

Fresh Agitprop Here!

[BerniesFriend]

yes rape rooms..mass graves..par for course..is that still going on in irag????

[Thane_Banquo]

The Pope should stick to homilies and stay the out of things he doesn't understand. The Vatican has been railing against the War on Terror almost from the start. They are merely an extension of the Euroweenie culture.

[sinkspur]

Why, buffy! Imagine finding you posting a thread that trashes the war in Iraq!

The Vatican has no credibility in the war in Iraq. Didn't you know that?

Surely you've followed the many threads where the Vatican's objections to pre-emptive war were discounted. Or, maybe you didn't, and just typed "no safer" into google and posted the first thing you found.

Buffy, you might want to go over to johnkerry.dork. With all your pacification of terrorists, and scare-mongering about the draft, they'd be throwing roses in your path as you entered.

[kddid]

Let us worry about the safety of the U.S. before we worry about the rest of the world.

[goodnesswins]

As someone on a similar thread said....wasn't it the Pope (a prior one) who looked "away" during much of the Nazi death camp debacle? Poor old senile man.....

[Frank_2001]

Oh, I want a Pope
Just like the Pope
Who led the First Crusade!;)

[whershey]

I was just going to comment on that and yes the Vatican did nothing about either the Nazis or the Soviet Union during the cold war with the exception of a few brave clergymen.

[Petronski]

As someone on a similar thread said....wasn't it the Pope (a prior one) who looked "away" during much of the Nazi death camp debacle?

That's a common misconception. Pope Pius XII saved 860,000 Jews from the Holocaust. It is very well documented. Prominent Jewish leaders from the era, including Golda Meir, commended his largely-unheralded efforts.

[Petronski]

I was just going to comment on that and yes the Vatican did nothing about either the Nazis or the Soviet Union during the cold war with the exception of a few brave clergymen.

That's an irresponsible statement, because it is overly broad, and demonstrably inaccurate.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Uhhh... does the Vatican realize the war is not over yet?

After all, ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY, WAS IT?

[VOA]

Security in Iraq has greatly deteriorated since the handover, casting doubt on
whether elections can be held.

Regretably there is no mention of how our Democrats have obstructed flow of
money and investment into Iraq that would have gotten more Iraqis off the dole
and with less idle time of their hands.

But, seeing how the US mainstream media has buried this aspect of the
conflict, the omission is understandable.

[M Kehoe]

The world may not be safer, but we sure as hell haven't been hit again. So apparently, W.'s policy of kill them there before we have to kill them here is surely working.

5.56mm

[jwpjr]

re: "the Vatican did nothing about either the Nazis or the Soviet Union during the cold war"

They made up for it by totally ignoring the pedophile priest scandal for decades.

[PRSOrlando]

Unfortunitly as a "traditional in waiting" Catholic, there are things that make me scratch my head. Iraq was obviously a just war and the Vatican can't see it. But when Catholic parishes loose their identity, priests under the gun for pedophilia, corrupt bishops who won't even take a stand on clear moral issues, Catholics driving away from the Church in mass numbers, etc. and the best the Vatican does to correct this all is by creating a sports department. It's disheartening. But I think in the end the devil will not prevail over the Church, but as we see there is a battle going on.

[sinkspur]

wasn't it the Pope (a prior one) who looked "away" during much of the Nazi death camp debacle?

The Chief Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism after WWII, taking the name "Eugenio" (after Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII). He testified that Pius XII himself saved over 600,000 Jews in various ways during WWII.

There was no "looking away" by the Church.

[Shellback Chuck]

The church will always take a "pacifist" stance, that is until its survival is threatened. I expect the pope will sing a different tune when the Islamofacists are beating on the door to Vatican City.

And oh, by the way, I am a Catholic.

[familyop]

One and two years ago, Kerry said that Saddam Hussein had to be removed. He has changed his mind several times on that issue and contradicted himself on it during last night's Debate.


So the Vatican is anti-American. So what?





Conservative US Catholics are doing fine with adjusting to that. They've done it before, are very resilient and maintain their moral beliefs with more strength than Europeans do.

So is the rest of Europe. The European Anglicans are more anti-American and anti-Jewish than anyone but the terrorists (if not as much).

I'm an American. I don't decide my morality by what the more secularized, weak and afraid European elite think. And my ancestors had no need for sucking on limes.

[whershey]

I apologize. Your right. My statement was to broad.