The Catholic Hawks
March 20, 2003

by Joe Sobran

     Bush administration spokesmen assure us that 
"civilian casualties will be minimal" in Iraq. Whatever 
this mantra means, it doesn't mean zero. Can't we at 
least have an estimate? And -- this being a democracy and 
all -- can't we have free press access this time, to keep 
us informed on the carnage?

     Civilians cope with war as best they can. Pregnant 
women in Baghdad have been begging their doctors to 
deliver their babies ahead of schedule by cesarean 
section, because they dread going into labor during the 
American bombing. Other pregnant women will miscarry, 
while still others will die carrying their children. 
"Collateral damage," you know.

     If only some of our conservative Catholic hawks, who 
doggedly insist that this "preventive" slaughter meets 
their Church's standards of just warfare, could be 
brought to see war as a form of abortion. Would that 
change their minds? Or would they say that abortion is 
permissible in cases of rape, incest, and the need to 
topple Arab dictators?

     These Catholics clear their consciences adroitly. If 
the war can be justified abstractly, they don't worry 
unduly about the actual victims. You might think they'd 
at least feel the necessity of killing innocent people 
for geopolitical reasons as posing a painful dilemma.

     Yet I haven't heard a single one of the Catholic 
hawks express moral anguish, or even suggest praying for 
the victims. After all, they seem to reason, it's all 
Saddam Hussein's fault. In the words of the legendary 
Crusader, "Kill them all! God will know his own."

     "One death is a tragedy," Joseph Stalin observed. "A 
million deaths is a statistic." There's perspective for 
you. If we could get rid of Saddam Hussein by killing one 
child in Baghdad -- a child whose name and face were 
broadcast like Elizabeth Smart's -- who would want to do 
the honors? But killing countless nameless, faceless 
children by remote control is easy.

     The Pope, who has warned against the modern "Culture 
of Death," has condemned this war. But again, Stalin 
speaks for the Catholic hawk: "The Pope? How many 
divisions does the Pope have?" One Catholic to whom I put 
the question sidestepped it by pointing out that the 
Pope hasn't spoken ex cathedra (with full papal 
authority) against the war, and anyway, "We are not a 
theocracy." Ergo, President Bush is entitled to kill, and 
good Catholics are entitled to support him.

     Well, the Pope never speaks ex cathedra on current 
events. He can't make his opposition to this war a dogma 
of the Catholic faith, right up there with the Trinity 
and the Resurrection. That is no excuse for ignoring a 
clear application of the moral principle that killing the 
innocent is wrong.

     Of course Bush won't intend the deaths of the 
victims. If he could depose Hussein without "collateral 
damage," no doubt he would. But does he let the prospect 
of that indeterminate "collateral damage" interfere with 
his plans? Evidently not. Do his supporters even ask for 
an approximation of the number of innocent victims he 
foresees and is willing to accept? Evidently not. In the 
words of Madeleine Albright in answer to a similar 
question some years ago, "We think the price is worth 
it." To whom? Isn't anyone curious? We ask about how much 
money the war will cost, but not how many innocent lives.

     A just war, according to Catholic teaching, is, 
among other things, one which avoids producing evils 
disproportionate to the cause. Since Iraq hasn't even 
threatened to harm the United States, let alone done so, 
even the "collateral damage" is criminal. It can't 
honestly be called unavoidably incidental to the "common 
defense of the United States."

     This is a war driven entirely by disingenuous 
propaganda. The idea didn't bubble up to the government 
from Americans who were personally afraid of Iraq and 
pleaded with their government to protect them. Nor is it 
so urgent that the United States would fight on equal 
terms, risking defeat and devastation at home. Even after 
all the propaganda, Americans aren't afraid of Iraq; 
they're afraid of al-Qaeda. It's Osama bin Laden, not 
Saddam Hussein, who has been a boon to the duct-tape 
industry.

     As usual, the American people have been drawn 
passively into war. Even after such farces as the war on 
another "threat," Panama's Manuel Noriega, they trust 
their presidents to decide who their enemies are for 
them. I'm mortified to see my fellow Catholics supplying 
excuses for the perpetual war racket.

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