6/08/2006

Conscientious objector?

I'm not going to stand in judgement of Lt. Ehren Watada and whether or not he truely finds the war in Iraq unconscionable. He really may have come to the recent conclusion that the Iraqi front in the War on Terror is not a just conflict. But isn't the part of it that would be objectionable over. Aren't our forces that are there now serving the purpose of providing stability for the new government and preventing wholesale sectarian violence? It seems to me that this is precisely the type of activity a person of moral conscience would feel good about being involved in. I can understand the person who objects to our initiation of hostilities in Iraq and who believes it to have been unjust. There is legitimate room in traditional Just War Doctrine (paragraph 2309 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church) to refute that this front in the War on Terror met the just war criteria. There is also the ability to make a legitimate argument for the Iraqi front.

I hope that Lt. Watada is being honest with himself. I also hope that his actions aren't being influenced and manipulated by those parties who are simply opposed to the President, his administration, and his policies. That, I obeject to in good conscience.

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