Anti-Life Ethics in Iraq (George Weigel runs amok)

Anti-Life Ethics in Iraq

by Jacob G. Hornberger, December15, 2006

As the debacle of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq continues tospiral downward, sucking countless more people into its death throes, someof those whose philosophy contributed to the fiasco remain steadfastlyunrepentant for the death and destruction they have wrought.

Among the unrepentant is George Weigel, senior fellow at the Ethics andPublic Policy Center, which describes itself as "Washington, D.C.'s premierinstitute dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition tocritical issues of public policy." The center's website describes Weigel as"a Roman Catholic theologian and one of America's leading commentators onissues of religion and public life."

Weigel recently wrote an article entitled "Baghdad2006=Tet 1968?" which was published in the December 7, 2006, issue of theArlington Catholic Herald, the official newspaper for the Catholic Dioceseof Arlington.

In his article, Weigel writes, "Reasonable people could, and did, differabout the prudence of the March 2003 invasion. My considered judgmentremains that the allied action satisfied the conditions of a just war." Insupport of his conclusion, Weigel points out that "the allied coalition thatinvaded Iraq had multiple goals: to depose a murderous regime, therebyridding the world of a serious threat to international security; to empowerthe people of Iraq through a democratic process; and to create a newpolitical model for the Arab-Islamic world."

Unfortunately, in his article Weigel failed to note an important point: toachieve those political goals, U.S. military forces had to kill Iraqi people- in fact, large numbers of Iraqi people - people whose government neverattacked the United States. The estimates of the number of Iraqi dead rangefrom a "low" of 30,000, provided by President Bush, to a high of 650,000,provided by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0612e.asp