The Evils of the Iraq War Keep Coming

At the time, it was clear that the just war conditions did not apply in Iraq. Most obviously, there was no way it was a last resort, and the arising “disproportionate” evils had the potential to be catastrophic. Alas, as the years pass, the true horror of these evils is still coming to light. We are witnessing the complete destruction of the Christian presence in Iraq, with the ancient and veritable church of the east facing extinction. Our Christian brothers and sisters live in terror, and fear for their lives, all because of that wicked war. As Bishop Warduni of Baghdad noted, “That the great saint Karol Wojtyla was right to condemn the war in Iraq. It created far more problems than it resolved. Given how it’s ended up, it would have been better not to intervene. The recourse to force has simply meant destruction, without producing any benefit for the country.”

The attack on churches has now even reached Coptic Egypt, after the Saints Cathedral in Alexandria was attacked by a Sunni extremist group called the ‘Islamic State of Iraq’. It is important to note that all shades of mainstream Muslim opinion in Egypt has condemned this attack, from the rector of Al-Azhar seminary, Ahmad al-Tayyib (one of the leading authorities in Sunni Islam), to the Muslim Brotherhood. The radicals responsible for the attack see local Christians as collaborators with the United States, a charge that could not be more false.

What I want to know is this: where are George Weigel and the Catholic neo-cons who gleefully cheerleaded this war, building all kinds of spurious justifications for it, and ignoring the stance of two popes on the issue? Should they not apologize for getting it so wrong? Do they feel no shame for what has been unleashed upon their Christian brothers and sisters? Sadly, Weigel is all-too predictable. He will surely blame these attacks on the nefarious Islamists, completely blind to the radical upheaval rendered by his war that made all this possible. I hope that some day, George and his friends will experience a change of heart.