Two Catholic Views on Iraq and the War On Terror

To say the least there is a difference of views. Let us Look at two.

The Catholic site Vox Nova had quite a post yesterday. It was called Al Qaeda (Not) Iraq. I really don't know what to say to that . It pretty much goes against all evidence and one wonders if anything one could say would change the view of a person that has this mindset. The author of this post continued with the argument that this is all Bush Propaganda and it is all about illegal occupation in his comments here and here. I really do not understand this delusion. Is there such hatred for Bush and anger by some at the war that talking points that are no longer can be held credible are just repeated like a deranged parrot. The poster at Vox Nova states basically that all this Al Qaeda talk is fear and these people are just fighting horrible America. I have to wonder if people even read what the incredible Journalist Michael Yon is pointing out in his dispatches. People are dying because of AQ everyday. He has taken pictures of the massacres.

Let us go to a Catholic Source and lets see what they say. I highly urge every Catholic or interested party to read this article at the Catholic publication Chiesa called Kurdistan's Twin Towers: The Massacre of the Yazidi. That gives pretty much short rift to the fallacies that the before mentioned poster said that AQ is not the same that attacked us. In the opening paragraph

ROMA, August 24, 2007 – It has been underestimated in general, as if it were just another of the many anonymous killings that bloody Iraq each day. But the August 14 massacre that decimated the Yazidi people was absolutely out of the ordinary. One of the very few analysts of international politics who gave this the necessary emphasis was professor Vittorio E. Parsi, in a front page editorial in the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, "Avvenire." In Parsi's judgment, the August 14 massacre of the Yazidi is second – in scope, and also in its communicative power – only to the felling of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Both were the work of al-Qaeda, the Islamist organization founded by Osama bin Laden. More than 500 people lost their lives in the massacre, with more than 350 wounded. To get an idea of the magnitude of the slaying, it's enough to remember that just a few days later, in Peru, a deadly earthquake claimed an equal number of victims.

Good Grief. Why is this "Bush Hack" saying these things in one of the most influential Catholic Newspapers in the World that is run by the Italian Bishops On the FRONT PAGE TO BOOT. What is the World coming too!!! Doesn't he know he is getting snookered.(SARCASM)

In the Editorial itself that appeared(also available at the link) he said in part:
Such a spectacular strike against a small minority held to be heretical by many proponents of fundamentalist and radical Sunni Islam (but who are not necessarily accessories to terrorism) has, above all, the precise meaning of restating the nature of the struggle in which the followers of al-Qaeda are engaged in Iraq. This struggle is a jihad, a holy war. It is not a war of national liberation, nor a war against American imperialism. With the massacre of August 14, the members of al-Qaeda wanted to reassert the extent of their war in Iraq, of their presence in that country. And the dimension of the violence functioned to emphasize, in communicative terms, al-Qaeda's capacity to impose its war over that of all others: the pro-Iranian Shiites and the followers of the "Mahdi army," Ba'thist insurgents and Sunni guerrillas financed by the Saudis.

This is not news. Why is this horrible event given such short shrift. Why do Catholics and others that scream Human rights don't seem to give a big damn about these poor people. Instead they rant on about how bad the USA and Bush is and fail to see that a REAL BATTLE IS GOING ON.

Darwin Catholic made an observation in his post A 'Pacifist' on the Iraq War that I hate to say I agree with as much as it pains me. He too was looking at a post at the Vox Nova when he said:
........There is a certain honesty about this, though I can't say it's refreshing. And people say that "warmongers" are heartless...Compare that set of opinions motivated by "peace" with Michael Yon's dispatch about traveling with the first convoy of food from Baghdad to Baqubah in a number of months. I think in this case, there's more hope and care for humanity on the war side than the peace side.The point of the original post on Vox Nova (which I think is rather more sentimental than thoughtful, and thus wanders astray a bit, but more on that later) is that if Christians are forced into war, they must still love their enemies even as they seek to defeat them. What strikes me in some of the more frank anti-Iraq-war rhetoric is that those in favor of an immediate and absolute pull-out seem to care much less about those who live in Iraq than those who advocate seeing things through to a point of relative stability.

I tend to agree. I have to chalk it up to ignorance. These people see American and Bush more as the enemy than Radical Islam. They are ignorant of the horrific reports of what people endure under AQ rule as shown here by Michael Yon is his gripping posts starting with Bless the Beasts and Children . See his updates Update on “Bless the Beasts and Children”, Go listen to his video interview with our guys that were feet away from the bodies being exhumed, and read about decapitation of children here at his other post. Be warned. There is talk about Al Qaeda. They exist. Have no doubt that these people killed were killed by the same evil as that which struck on 9/11. This was weeks before the horrific attack in Kurdistan.

It seems that SOME Catholics that say we must be AUTHENTIC CATHOLICS as to our views on the war have a strategy. Basically it is "heck they all look alike and think alike".

However at some point the fact that Sunni tribes that were our enemies are taking oaths on the KORAN to say no more to AQ and their terror has to come into our Catholic Decison making on what to do. At some point the fact that there is a 180 degree turn around in large areas of Iraq must be factored in. Go see AJ's post What One Year Can Do To Change Iraq.

However

We had another Catholic view today. The Anchoress pretty much laid out what we are facing better than I could ever do in her post The mysteries of history; events beyond our knowing. I am not going to comment on what she said that much because I would be pretty inept in doing it. She shows the two lines of thoughts I think quite clearly when she says in part:

Am I urging the West toward martyrdom, here? No, I am not urging it. But I am suggesting throughout history, martyrs have spilled blood and it has made a difference. I am suggesting that down the line some may well be called to martyrdom, and we might be wise to anticipate it and understand its use. I am suggesting that when one is caught in a fight between darkness and light - a fight that is more super than natural - such blood might well be required. It always has been, before.....We know we live in interesting times. Never forget they are - as ever - Supernatural times, too.
Now might be a good time to unplug the iPods and Blackberries, turn off the E! Channel and take a good look around. All manner of things can take you by surprise when you are distracted, when you are engulfed in noise and image and are unwilling - or unable - to find the silence in which so much may be heard.
Maybe there is nothing at all in the wind. But if that is true, it will be unusual.

Two views there. One sees it as just pure political monkeyshines of Evil BushCo and whatever the usual suspects are to those that promote that view. The other talks about a Supernatural time and yes something might be blowing in the wind. To me the Anchoress sounds more like the life I am seeing and feeling.