Replies

In June, our troops found a mass grave with 200 Kurdish children in it. They had been buried alive. Some were still holding their dolls. Sitting across a table from a man who would order that as a matter of course and making him see reason is simply not possible.

Again, I supported the war wholeheartedly, but Americans tend to see things only in their own interests (not that there's anything wrong with that). The Kurdish attack was terrible, but it occured 15 years ago, not this past April. The point is, for American interests it was vital that we attack Iraq, but from a strictly humanitarian standpoint, there were and are several more glaring targets of military intervention in the world. The Pope can not start down that road. It never ends. The Pope is really a spiritual figure, not a political one.

The Kurdish attack was terrible, but it occured 15 years ago, not this past April.

Two things: The mass grave wasn't from the 1988 Halabjah attack. It was much more recent. Also,I wasn't saying, "The war was justified to avenge the Kurds," I was using the mass grave thing as an example of why peaceful means simply would not have succeeded with Hussein, and it was obvious that they wouldn't.

I agree that humanitarian justification for war would have the Pope endorsing the invasion of a minimum of 20 countries, and probably the PRC would be on that list. But then, I've never really argued the humanitarian reason for war; I brought it up here with you to illustrate the futility of peaceful means in this case, and I bring it up with real peaceniks to puncture their bloated sense of moral superiority. The real reason to go in was terror training camps and WMD, and either one alone justified the invasion.

The Pope is really a spiritual figure, not a political one.

True, but as usual, spiritual things have great consequences in the real world, and JPII helped bring down the Warsaw Pact, for Pete's sake. Also, consider the situation in this case: The main advocates of military action are a Catholic (Blair) and a strongly vocal professing Christian (Bush). One of the nations that is sending combat troops is the Pope's home country, a nation that is almost 100% Catholic. This Pope is known for his stands against tyrants, and he runs the segment of Christianity that birthed the Just War doctrine. If he says, "Nope, doesn't fit," that has enormous political consequences.

Of course the Pope should press for peace whenever possible. But to say that those who took Hussein down would have grave spiritual consequences...does that mean SWAT teams are going to Hell en masse?