Some reliable estimates indicate over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have already been killed in this extended U.S. military occupation of Iraq, many of them women and children. Under the conditions of guerilla warfare, our soldiers cannot distinguish between combatants and non-combatants and innocent Iraqis are paying the price with their lives.
Clearly, the Iraq war fails the test of being a just war. The leaders of our major Christian denominations agree. Pope John Paul II stated before the Iraq war began that this war would be a defeat for humanity which could not be morally or legally justified. In the weeks and months before the U.S. attacked Iraq, not only the Pope, but also one Cardinal and Archbishop after another spoke out against such a “preemptive” strike. They declared that the just war theology could not justify such a war.
Back in 2002, President George Bush’s own United Methodist Church launched a scathing attack on his preparations for war against Iraq, saying that they are “without any justification according to the teachings of Christ.” In July, 2004, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church/USA issued a paper that condemned the U.S. policy of pre-emptive military action against nations perceived as threats to the United States as ethically indefensible and contrary to the just war theory that has been the basis of Christian theology on warfare. Clearly, John McCain unjustly calls the Iraq war just.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
