I've never been able to understand how anyone could condone what happened to Iraq.

Oh, I can understand it. I have a hard time condoning everything to which we have been party that has happened to Iraq, but this country has played dirty politics abroad for a long time.

All indications are that they got rid of virtually all their weapons in 1991, which is 12 years ago.

Yes. As that was the party line justification for the invasion, it was false and weak.

The war was for nothing and was an evil act. That general got up and claimed it was about his God versus Satan. Virtually every Christian religious leader in the world said before the war that it would be an evil act, that there was no justificiation to go in and kill innocent people on a hypothetical threat. If anyone has any concept of being religious at all this should make you think about what side you are on.

I'm not religious, though I have a spiritual outlook. Your appeal to religion appears to me to be the tail side of the same coin that General Boykin keeps flipping in the air.

All Christian churches believe it was evil to support that war.

Sorry, no. There are some mighty bellicose Christians out there.

That means one day when you die and are judged, their consensus is you are going to a place a lot hotter than Iraq. If you aren't religious fair enough. That however is what your church is telling you is right and wrong.

Had a church. Sent it packing. Haven't found one yet I'm willing to take orders from. Too much fundamentalism on all sides these days.

They are saying those who supported that war supporting killing innocent people because of a possibility they might have weapons that could kill other people in return.

I agree that speculation about possible future actions that someone we don't trust may take is not a justification for invasion.

2003 is not the time to be redefining morality.

Is there a time for that?

This is an evil purpose, it always has been. If people think it was done in the name of Christianity try reading about what the word means. Innocent people are dead and there never were any weapons. There never was any real evidence there even were weapons, no intelligence agency supported the war. It's not right to just invade another country and kill lots of innocent people because maybe they might attack you in the future if they ever got weapons. This is said to be evil in the Bible and said to be evil throughout Christianity. People that support policy like that are braver than I am, or had better hope their religions are wrong about this. Apparently Bush knows more about economics than anyone else. Now he's supposed to know more about morality than the Pope. Why should I believe the Republican Party over what Jesus said?

You appear to have interpretted the Gospels in a social context. Many conservatives interpret the Gospels in a personal, spiritual context and divorce them from the civic sphere (where they are just as applicable). The Gospels are revolutionary documents. If we were to live in accordance with them, a lot of our institutions of power would become ridiculous and fall by the wayside. Most people aren't ready to do that yet. Also, Christianity has, over the last 2000 years, become enmeshed with power politics, beginning with the Roman Emperor Constantine, who made it the Imperial Religion. I wouldn't look for religion to renounce power and politics any time in the near future.

All we can attempt to do in Iraq now is to try to dress the wounds which we have inflicted, to step back, and to let the Iraqis choose for Iraq. If they choose a course of which we don't approve, this time we will have to shut up about it.

I appreciate your moral outrage. Please appreciate that all this talk of evil and hellfire sounds to me like more of the same kind of extremism that's driving this conflict from both sides. I can stand out of your way, but I can't stand beside you.

Regards--
Mary Anne