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Sunday, November 16, 2003
Link between Iraq & al Quaeda Established
So says Stephen S. Hays in the article "Case Closed", Weekly Standard (11/14/03). The Drudge Report posted a link to the article, leading to the collapse of the Weekly Standard's servers due to the overwhelming number of hits. Fortunately the blog Little Green Footballs and Fox News mirrored the article on their websites in the meantime, and the New York Post picked up the story on Saturday. However, as noted by Lane Core and Catholic Light's Eric Johnson, the rest of the mainstream media appears to be rather hesitant to address the matter. I've personally searched some websites, and thus far have failed to see mention of it by CNN or MSNBC, much less a significant publication like the New York Times. One would think that the existence of such a memo would deserve major attention by the rest of the media -- after all, it does appear to be a significant document in justifying U.S. action in Iraq, certainly a matter of public interest at this point in time. In addition, Hays describes it as a "'Cliff's Notes' version of the relationship. It contains the highlights, but it is far from exhaustive":
UPDATE [11/17/03] - InstaPundit posts some additional links of reactions to the memo (and the DOD's qualified response) from the blogging community. The details of Hays' article appear to vindicate the position of Dan Darling, who made his case earlier this week on the justifiability of the war in relation to Catholic Just War doctrine. Of the three point argument for the necessity of the war offered by the Bush Administration -- WMD's; human rights abuses, and ties to Al Qaeda -- Darling finds the latter "the the key justification for any attempt to fit the war in Iraq into the Just War model." Meanwhile, Mark Windsor of Vociferous Yawpings offers his reflections on using the Catechism as a critique of U.S. policy in Iraq:
and makes his own case as to why the U.S. action is justifiable. For Windsor, the matter of finding WMD's was incidental, the documented record of Saddam Hussein's extensive human rights abuses primary:
Much of the debate between Catholics over this war and CJWD focuses on reconciliation of U.S. policy with the first point ("the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain"); but I agree with Mark Windsor's post: non-intervention in the face of Iraq's outstanding crimes against humanity would have been morally reprehensible. 1 In retrospect, it was the moral obligation of the U.S. to assist in stopping Saddam's reign of terror which influenced my support of the war. The discovery of numerous mass graves indicating that possibly as many as 300,000 Iraqis were killed make me wonder why we didn't take action sooner. Meanwhile, Sandro Magister recently interviewed Louis Sako, bishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Kirkuk on the current state of affairs in Iraq. While skeptical about the U.S.'s humanitarian claims for invading Iraq ("They have their interests, and they came to Iraq for those, not to liberate the Iraqis. But, in fact, freedom was the result"), he says that the reaction of the Iraqi populace is overwhelmingly positive and is optimistic about the nation's future. Bishop Sakso also comments on the ongoing collaberation between Muslims and Christians to secure religious interests, ("we formed a mixed group of Christians and Muslims to defend the churches and mosques before and during the war. We furthermore promised conferences to explain Christianity and islam; many friendships were born, and some of the Muslims have welcomed our appeal for national unity"), the critical need to further dialogue between the two faiths, and calls for ecumenical assistance in rebuilding the nation of Iraq:
Labels: iraq
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