Posted on 01/10/2005 7:29:30 AM PST by areafiftyone
VATICAN CITY - The Italian cardinal sent by Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II last year to try to dissuade President Bush (news - web sites) from invading Iraq (news - web sites) said Monday the president promised that the U.S. operation would be "quick."
Cardinal Pio Laghi visited Bush at the White House on March 5, 2003, to relay the pope's position that dialogue, not arms, should be used to resolve the crisis over Iraq, which the United States accused of harboring weapons of mass destruction.
"When I went to Washington as the pope's envoy just before the outbreak of the war in Iraq, he (Bush) told me: `Don't worry, your eminence. We'll be quick and do well in Iraq,'" Laghi told Italian Catholic TV station Telepace, which was broadcasting the pontiff's annual address to diplomats.
When the United States went to war in Iraq, Laghi called the attack on Baghdad "tragic and unacceptable."
"Unfortunately, the facts have demonstrated afterward that things took a different course not rapid and not favorable," the prelate told Telepace. "Bush was wrong."
Laghi was the Vatican (news - web sites)'s first envoy to Washington in the 1980s and established a friendship with Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush.
This is a lie. If you all can remember Bush said it was going to be a long haul, he has always said that. Nothing was said about quick, he has always emphasized that it would take a long time.
Yeah, this is the same church that turned a blind eye to the murder of 6 million jews.
When will the Good Cardinal fly on to meet Zarky and ask him about fullfilling HIS end of the deal for peace?
The operation will be over when our troops leave. Or at least when they can walk around without body armor.
The gap here is between the speed of the military operation and the restoration of peace and order, which has no end in sight.
Just think about what you are saying here, and place it in the context of the Vatican's position. In addition to being "stable," Iraq also happened to be one of the few Islamic nations in the world where Christians were allowed to practice their faith openly without fear of reprisal by radical Muslims.
These men in the Vatican have been wrong for decades, allowing these Islamic cults to roam the globe, murdering innocents with impunity.
Let's look at the situation in Iraq today. You had the United States topple a totalitarian government dominated by Sunni Muslims, in the hopes that it would be replaced by some kind of democratic government. The only problem here is that any democratically-elected government in Iraq is going to be dominated by more radical Shi'ite Muslims. As far as Iraq is concerned, nobody has done more to promote "Islamic cults" than the United States.
The irony here is that Iraq has paid a severe price for their "moderation" (in relative terms, of course). The U.S. wouldn't dream of invading and occupying a country dominated by the very radical elements of Islam that you identify as the real enemy here. Do you think it's just a coincidence that over the last 25 years the two Middle Eastern countries where the U.S. has engaged in military action (Lebanon and Iraq) also happened to be the most "moderate" Islamic countries in the region? Or that the U.S. vacated Lebanon once the Muslims overthrew the Christian government, and vacated Saudi Arabia after 9/11?
Has that been all that happened, I would agree with you. But Cardinals such as Laghi did more than warn President Bush. They helped launched a Jihad against America and our allies, which gravely undermined the perception of the authority authority of the CHurch and led to the election of Godless, anti-Christian radicals in Spain. They preached endlessly on the opinions about politics, without teaching the faithful to discern between their opinions and the authority of the Church, while they neglected their duties to uphold the rights of the unborn and to protect the innocents in their charge.
Meanwhile, the Vatican News Service has directly lied about the statements of the Abp of Baghdad. Whereas he said (paraphrased slightly from memory), "War is always evil, but to do nothing in the face of genocide and terror is a far greater evil." His meaning was crystal clear, for he also called the war the greatest thing to happen to the Middle East since the age of the apostles! Yet Vatican News Service simply claimed he was against the war, simply stating that he had said, "War is always evil."
Recycled quips from Joe Stalin -- that's what passes for conservatism in these times.
We also have an annoying tendency to delude ourselves into thinking that the U.S. and/or international bodies like the U.N. somehow represent a legitimate form of authority in Iraq, while some guy with an AK-47 and a pile of explosives who has lived in Fallujah all his life is an "insurgent."
LOL!
Right again, Laz.
One of the best-kept secrets of the U.S. in the Middle East goes back to the revolution in Iran in 1979 in which those U.S. Embassy workers were held captive for 444 days. When the Islamic fundamentalists toppled the Shah and overthrew the government, the U.S. Embassy was the second building they stormed in Tehran that day. The first building they sacked was the Tehran headquarters of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?
OH???
And you approve of this misdirected meddling??
bump
More of the legacy media disinformation.
No, but there are certainly legitimate, theological grounds on which anyone can make their case against this war. The U.S. action in Iraq over the last 15 years has not met even the most basic requirements of the Church's "just war" tradition.
I'd consider "quick" in this case to be 10-15 years.
You've taken your anti-war stance to an entirely new level by misrepresenting that the Church's "just war" tradition doesn't apply to Iraq. It certainly does.
You'd have to convince me of that. I've made the case that the "just war" principles didn't apply in Iraq in 1990, and don't apply today -- at least from the standpoint of the United States.
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