Standing Up Against the Iraq War
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 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.
Lt. Watada is a man of conscience who speaks truth to power. He is a man of courage who puts himself in the way of an immoral war. Lt. Watada is the true patriot who acts to bring his nation back to its moral senses. People of faith and conscience around America must stand up with Lt. Watada and demand an end to this unjust and immoral war on Iraq.