In your considered opinion was the recent war with Iraq justified and legal?

Question

I am intrigued what you think - please try to keep your opinions well explained. Thanks.

If possible; please try to keep your personal judgements to yourself and work with the facts available. Thanks.

Answer 1

there are several ways to look at this.firstly the weapons of mass destruction were never found but the iraqs were living under a dictator.sometimes you have to look at the wider angle and decide the real motives behind it was it oil.i dont know but what i do know is this tinderbox is well and truly kindled and people are getting killed trying to stabalise the situation.i feel sorry for all the soldiers and innocent people caught up and being killed in a confused and volatile country .in my opinion it is a no win situatin for both sides .

Answer 2

After 9/11 the American people were baying for blood. Saddam give the excuses and was an easy target, whether guilty or not.
Iraq was attacked with the mentality of a lynch mob.

The US should remember the movies it used to make about this:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036244/

I still remember the rather long winded quote, before a lyching:

"My dear Wife, Mr. Davies will tell you what's happening here tonight. He's a good man and has done everything he can for me. I suppose there are some other good men here, too, only they don't seem to realize what they're doing. They're the ones I feel sorry for. 'Cause it'll be over for me in a little while, but they'll have to go on remembering for the rest of their lives. A man just naturally can't take the law into his own hands and hang people without hurtin' everybody in the world, 'cause then he's just not breaking one law but all laws. Law is a lot more than words you put in a book, or judges or lawyers or sheriffs you hire to carry it out. It's everything people ever have found out about justice and what's right and wrong. It's the very conscience of humanity. There can't be any such thing as civilization unless people have a conscience, because if people touch God anywhere, where is it except through their conscience? And what is anybody's conscience except a little piece of the conscience of all men that ever lived? I guess that's all I've got to say except kiss the babies for me and God bless you. Your husband, Donald."

Answer 3

Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator. That is exactly why the US, most notably, supported him for years providing him with weapons and technology. He brought a degree of stability to a very unstable region. However when he started to flex his muscles in the region in his own interest it appears that the US government wanted to punish him for disobedience. He was fool enough to give the US a lot of excuses.

The notion of legality in wars is fundamentally flawed because the court itself is so corrupt. The patent violations of international treaties by Israel are not punished because of one of the 'judges' (the USA in the security council). (The list of cases which have been ignored by this court is very long indeed).

Countries have a duty to protect their own national interests and the USA decided it was in its own interest to go to war with Iraq. There has been lots of speculation about what those interests were and many people think the interests were commercial. If that is true (and I neither know nor am I in position to find out) then the war is little more than piracy.

So in conclusion, was it legal? Probably not, but it's a close call.

Was it justified? No. He was a murderous dictator, but not the only one and probably not the worst. His regime was oppressive, but not the only one and probably not the worst. What example did the US have of one country invading another and managing successfully to impose a new form of government without decades of suffering to the population? I guess if you allow ethnic cleansing to take place there are examples you can cite - the population is no longer there to suffer in the country.

It is the replacement of Manifest Destiny with Manifest Dementia.

Answer 4

Abortion isn't the only merchandise on the bishops' time table. you could easily flow to the USBBC website and notice each and all of the matters they have been discussing this week. in case you care. you're marvelous that Catholicism opposes the dying penalty, ANY unjust war (there are different wars occurring interior the international besides Iraq, in case you probably did no longer comprehend), oppression, economic and social injustices, etc. It has no longer something to do with the Republican platform in any respect. Ask any bishop, and he will freely admit that the Democrats are extra suitable on a number of those matters, and the Republicas are extra suitable on others. in spite of the undeniable fact that, on account that legalized abortion has already further approximately the cruel slaughter of only approximately 50 million human beings, and neither capitol punishment nor the Iraqi war have come even close to to that discern, and once you couple that with Barack Obama's purpose to rigidity all taxpayers to pay for abortions and all wellbeing care workers to take part in abortions notwithstanding in the event that they're morally antagonistic to it and all Catholic institutions to furnish abortions and different morally problematical techniques, the difficulty of abortion is needless to say getting particularly some interest from the bishops.

Answer 5

The war was not justified.
The only justification for war is when you are directly attacked ( not a small group) by a country. The CIA made up stories to "justify" the war. America was looking for some one to attack because of 9/11 and the Bush family had a score to settle in Iraq and all those billions of $ in oil profits were very attractive too.
The war was NOT LEAGAL either:
The UN weapons inspectors found no WMD and after 3 years of occupation the US military has not found any either.

Answer 6

The Israelis, as is well-known, have had nukes since the 1960s. Now the Iranians are seeking to level the nuclear playing field, and Israel's amen corner in the West is up in arms. "The Lobby," as Stephen Walt and John J. Mearsheimer characterize the pro-Israel forces in the U.S., is pushing for a confrontation with Iran over the nukes issue, with some success. The matter is headed for the UN Security Council, where the Europeans are expected to go along with the American campaign to rein in Tehran, while the Russians and the Chinese are sitting on the fence for now. There is little doubt, however, where all this is bound to lead…

Answer 7

I think you'll find its a current war, not a recent one.

Justified, no. The initial justification" has been proved to be false, and the justification has changed each year the campaign continues.

Legal, probably. As the most powerful lawyers in the world set up the laws and govern them. Doesn't mean its right though. I find the concept of calling invading a country and killing innocent people as "legal" a bit absurd and proof that the human race has a long was to go.

Answer 8

No, the invasion was illegal under the guidelines of the UN security council. By the way, the war in Iraq is still raging, only difference is that it is a guerilla war, not a typical military one. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. The Iraq war is a disaster.

Answer 9

Justified - Yes, Legal - Probably Not. We took preventative action in Iraq back in March 2003 to stop Saddam in the future using WMD on the west. We liberated Iraq from his regime - ok things havnt gone according to plan since then, but with foreign fighters from Iran/Syria etc etc it was always going to take a long time.
Why do we always apease these dictators until they do something bad (think of hitler in the 1930's), even though lots of civilians/military personnell have lost their lives - its a drop in the ocean for those who could have been killed had Saddam dropped a nuke on Israel.

Answer 10

The war in Iraq is completely legal.

Iraq repeated violated its surrender terms throughout the 1990s. That alone is enough for any coalition nation to resume hostilities. But also, the United Nations blessed the activity with resolution 1441.

It is justified from a moral sense -- removing a murderous dictator who was wantonly killing his own citizens and threatening those of other nations.

It also satisfies the Catholic Church's criteria for a 'Just War'.