Although UN inspectors haven't found anything that would be a violation of Iraq's agreement to dispose of all of its Weapons of Mass Destruction, the President is boldly pushing ahead with his follhardy plan to invade Iraq while steadfastly ignoring developments on the Korean penninsula.
The Pope has come out against the invasion, not because he is against war in general (although I would suspect that of being true), but because engaging in preventative warfare is an immoral act, particularly against an opponent that has no means of striking back.
This isn't to say that there can be no moral wars, just that the Pope is drawing upon the arguments of St. Augustine, who proposed the concept of "Just War", in which the combatants act to defend themselves or others, and laid out the first justification for Christians to join the military and defend their homes.
The Pope's point is that this isn't one of those "Just" wars, as we haven't been attacked, and neither has anyone else. Shooting at airplanes in the "no-fly zones" doesn't count.
Why don't the no-fly zones count? For one, because the UN says they don't. Why? Because there is no legal basis for the things. A search of the UN website turns up nothing. Kofi Annan, a month ago, said that Iraqi missile attacks against the aircraft was not a violation of any agreements. Why? Becasue it's Iraqi airspace that the U.S. and Britain decided to patrol long after Desert Storm was over. Not that it protected the Kurds against helicopter gunships.
So, we have no evidence that Iraq has the weapons the Bush Administration claims they do, no evidence of ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and the President still wants to invade. I'm not sure I quite understand this.
It isn't like Iraq could actually attack the United States. If they still have any Scud missiles, they could reach Israel, Turkey, or Syria, but that's about it. They have no Navy to speak of, and their Air Force is antiquated and porrly trained.
No to mention that it would be suicide for Saddam, who is a ruthless dictator, but has a pretty good sense of self-preservation. An attack on the U.S. by Iraq just doesn't make sense.
So what's the point of invading?
Posted by Chris at January 3, 2003 09:49 AM