Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the 2003 war was “right”, as he gives evidence to the UK’s Iraq inquiry.
I still shudder when I remember back to the speech Colin Powell gave to the UN in order to make the case for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
I was sitting in a hotel room in Egypt watching CNN and Colin Powell looked like a broken man. He seemed unconvincing and I perceived that he didn’t really believe what he was saying himself. I vividly remember the satellite images on the screen of a moving convoy of trucks in central Iraq, and Colin Powell trying to convince the world that this was indeed proof of WMD’s on the move.
It came as no surprise to me that Colin Powell decided to step down as Secretary of State and was replaced by Condoleezza Rice, not long after this.
Was this war the “right” decision or “wrong” decision, to be frank I haven’t got a clue. All I can do is watch the resulting aftermath.
In the seven years since the Iraq War was launched, 2,000 Christians have been murdered and 600,000 have fled Iraq, according to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. 44% of Iraqi refugees are Christians, and many of the 600,000 Christians who remain are internally displaced persons who have had to flee their homes.
“The life of Christians in this nation does not appear to be among the priorities,” said Chaldean Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni on the eve of the March 7 parliamentary elections. “We are victims of fanaticism and general instability, which leaves a free hand to those who want to use violence to intimidate. The causes are many and varied, but the end seems clear: continually reduce the Christian presence in Iraq, marginalize it, and deprive it of any rights.” – Source Catholic Culture