It's appeasement and it never works. The Pope should be ashamed. He should be condemning Islamic attacks. I liked this guy but have lost all respect.
Those were actually the words of Cardinal Sodano, a lefty who was JPII's Secretary of State and is being retired and replaced with a younger man by Benedict XVI in September. For him, however, the statement was pretty moderate because he actually condemned the terrorist attacks that led to the situation, something he rarely used to do in the past (when everything was the fault of the West, according to him).
Furthermore, bear in mind that no Pope is ever going to be thrilled about any war, anywhere, so when the Pope does make a statement (he's on vacation right now), it's not likely to be a call to arms. Medieval popes spent a good deal of their time and energy trying to get the local kings to stop killing each other and destroying each other's kingdoms, and negotiating truces was a big part of their job description.
In any case, if you think this Pope is soft on Islam, maybe you should stop and read the article that this thread is based on. He is very realistic, much more so than many of our secular leaders, in fact, and I don't think he's worried in the least about attacks on the Vatican. Catholics do not regard the Vatican the way Muslims regard Mecca; it's a beautiful set of buildings with some great art treasures and a long tradition, but it is not essential to the existence of the Catholic Church. The Pope is not going to cease to speak the truth in order to preserve some buildings.