Originally posted by Steve
Blitz, answer the question. What would you do? How many times do I need to ask you this? You type all sorts of things opposing this or the other thing... but you offer no alternatives. That makes you out to be an empty headed whiner blowhard. I'm giving you a chance to correct that. Give an alternative solution to what is occuring or shut your bellybutton up, once and for all.
War is never an inevitable fate. War always means the defeat of humanity"
The overseas development agencies of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany - Brot für die Welt, Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (EED) and Misereor - strongly support the appeal directed to the international community on January 13 by Pope John Paul II. At no point does international law justify a "pre-emptive war", and claim-ing the right to such a war would seriously undermine the principles of the United Nations Charter. Our partners both in the region and beyond it fear a humanitarian disaster which would severely aggravate the situation of the poor.
The overseas development agencies of the Churches in Germany strongly urge the Federal Government of Germany to exercise its influence, together with like-minded European partners and by means of its vote in the United Nations Security Council, to avert the threat of military intervention in Iraq. All possible means of finding a peaceful solution to the conflict should be attempted, including the extension of the time-frame for the UN weapons inspections, so as to attain a higher degree of certainty regarding the actual threat posed by the ruling powers in Iraq.
We are especially concerned for the people of Iraq, who have already suffered for years under an oppressive regime and the consequences of the UN embargo. They would be the first victims of a military strike. A document compiled by a number of UN organisations describes a threatening yet plausible scenario involving horrendous cost to human lives - hundreds of thousands of people killed, injured or permanently maimed, plus another two million refugees in Iraq to add to the one million refugees presently in the region. Already inadequate medical facilities would be completely destroyed. Added to this would be the untold damage inflicted on the economic fabric and infrastructure of the country. Quite apart from this it is completely unclear under what political conditions and with what future perspective Iraq could be rebuilt.
It is impossible to predict the political and social effects of a war on neighbouring countries of the Middle East and in particular on the situation in Israel. The risk of provoking additional instability as well as creating new social and political causes of conflict is incalculable. It is to be feared that the price in terms of human lives would be very high.
Numerous partners of the churches in Africa and Asia have expressed warnings and fears regarding the potentially omi-nous effects of a war on Iraq on latent conflictive situations in their own countries. In these regions, as in the region in question, church representatives indicate that a military strike against Iraq would be regarded in their countries first and foremost as the attack of a Christian country on an Islamic one. They remind us of the riots that broke out in Nigeria as a reaction to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, causing the death of three thousand people.
For the above reasons we categorically reject all plans for war on Iraq.
Brot für die Welt
Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (EED)
MISEREOR
Stuttgart, Bonn, Aachen, 17th of January, 2003.
Regards Blitz
America was threatened by Iraq in no way, it was just plain ridiculous.
