I'm as conservative and Catholic as they come, and only voted Democrat once (local election in the primary), and I had a good deal of moral problem with his oppositon to the Iraq war in light of the struggle for freedom in POland and Eastern Europe as a whole. It wasn't duplicitous in opposing armed intervention in Iraq, as much as he made the mistake in assuming that it could collapse the same by slowly opening the doors. Iraq was an absolutely repressive society, OTOH. He believed nonviolence in eastern europe was the only way to achieve freedom, because armed uprising would result in soviet crackdown/invasion, resulting in a hot war really fast and doing more damage than even the status quo would do. Iraq was no such threat, yet he made the mistake. Moral positon--consistent with his past positions on social justice and standing up to tyranny yes, but poor strategy. In any case it was not his positon to support us in Iraq, it was his position to be above everything. Remember there are five million Catholics in Iraq.
Thanks for your thoughtful post. I believe it was a a combination of his age, his non violent position in the Eastern European countries and also as a man who had seen what war can do was certainly influenced by that. Also, as most other nations, he had no idea at that time of the Oil for Food program and was most likely cautious regarding the Catholics there, seeing so much Christian persecution around the world.
Having said all that, I still think he missed the boat on this one and much may be due to his age and the counsel he was given.
As far as the Pope supporting/opposing any war goes:
AS I understand it, the Vatican has its own spy agency. If so, the Pope had to rely on that agency for his information. How could the Pope trust US intelligence above his own?
FReegards....
Five million? Where they all hiding then? I'd say that the combined Chaldean/Assyrian/Yezidi/Catholic population in Iraq would add up to no more than 300,000. Probably less. Any evidence for this claim?