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What calumny? I said the Pope has sided with Saddam's buddies. By this I meant France, Russia and Germany who supported the dictator for decades even as he slaughtered his own people. Do you deny the Pope has sided with them--or that they were Saddam's buddies?

And by the way, as long as we're on the subject of moral obtuseness, what excuse do you give for JnPII's mild response to Castro's recent atrocities and crackdowns--so mild as to enrage even his own Vatican bureaucracy? When does a tyrant merit more than a mere tut-tut? Notice how Tariq Aziz got the red carpet treatment but Bush got the cold shoulder--something was sorely amiss there. Do you suppose the Pope is losing it? At the least he has a tin ear for knowing when to express a minimal degree of outrage. He might have at least pretended the long-suffering people of Cuba deserved a little better after putting up with Castro for fifty years. Reminds me of the papal response to the priest sex abuse crisis. Pretty ho-hum if you ask me--the victims weren't even mentioned, not even in passing, not even to wish them well.

Finally, what do you make of Paul VI's remark that THE UN, of all bodies, is the "best hope of the world." One might have thought, being a Pope and a Catholic and all, he might have said Christ--but silly me, I forgot that would have been a remark more appropriate to the Church of BEFORE Vatican II--we traditionalists are so naive...

Do you deny the Pope has sided with them--or that they were Saddam's buddies?

Both. I deny that the pope's reasons were identical to even one of the numerically unprecedented coalition of the unwilling. I would deny that Saddam had any buddies, and for you to imply that he did, and that the pope sided with them is calumny. None of the countries you list were allied with Iraq; none worked for an Iraqi victory. All believed that the same goals that the U.S. proposed in Res. 1441 could be achieved through less destructive means. That the pope shared this wisdom only adds to my respect for him.