[marshmallow]

Forgive me if I'm skeptical about the acumen of Freepers when it comes to discerning events in the Middle East. I've been around here long enough to remember the hysterical reaction to Pope John Paul II when he cautioned George Dubya not to go into Iraq and take out Saddam. It was somewhat like the shrill, lynch nob mentality on this pitiful thread. "Pope protects Saddam", "Catholic Church comes to the defense of brutal dictator" and similar phrases were tossed around here in frenzy of Catholic bashing.

Almost a decade later, Saddam is gone, Iraq is an Islamic republic and hundreds of thousands of Christians have been either killed or forced to flee that miserable hell-hole and all at the cost of thousands of American lives. A once vibrant Christian community has been persecuted and decimated.

And who's responsible for this catastrophe? No, not the Vatican. We are. America!

The Pope was right and if we'd listened to him instead of howling at him like the clueless neo-cons that most of us are, there would still be Christians in Iraq and thousands of Americans would still be alive.

So you can take the garbage you've posted on this thread along with the worthless article at the top of it and flush it. You'll be hearing from me presently when I post Ravasi's discourse at the presentation of the Pope's book and the world can see what was really said.

[Lera]

*yawn*