Letter to President Bush on
Iraq
Bishop Wilton D. Gregory
September 13, 2002
The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
At its meeting last week, the 60-member Administrative Committee the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops asked me to write you about the
situation in Iraq. We welcome your efforts to focus the world's attention on
the need to address Iraq's repression and pursuit of weapons of mass
destruction in defiance of the United Nations. The Committee met before your
speech at the United Nations, but I thought it was important that I express
our serious questions about the moral legitimacy of any preemptive, unilateral
use of military force to overthrow the government of Iraq.
A year ago, my predecessor Bishop Joseph Fiorenza wrote you about the U.S.
response to the horrific attacks we commemorated last week. He told you then
that, in our judgment, the use of force against Afghanistan could be
justified, if it were carried out in accord with just war norms and as one
part of a much broader, mostly non-military effort to deal with terrorism. We
believe Iraq is a different case. Given the precedents and risks involved, we
find it difficult to justify extending the war on terrorism to Iraq, absent
clear and adequate evidence of Iraqi involvement in the attacks of September
11th or of an imminent attack of a grave nature.
The United States and the international community have two grave moral
obligations: to protect the common good against any Iraqi threats to peace and
to do so in a way that conforms with fundamental moral norms. We have no
illusions about the behavior or intentions of the Iraqi government. The Iraqi
leadership must cease its internal repression, end its threats to its
neighbors, stop any support for terrorism, abandon its efforts to develop
weapons of mass destruction, and comply with UN resolutions. Mobilizing the
nations of the world to recognize and address Iraq's threat to peace and
stability through new UN action and common commitment to ensure that Iraq
abides by its commitments is a legitimate and necessary alternative to the
unilateral use of military force. Your decision to seek UN action is welcome,
but other questions of ends and means must also be answered.
There are no easy answers. People of good will may apply ethical principles
and come to different prudential judgments, depending upon their assessment of
the facts at hand and other issues. We conclude, based on the facts that are
known to us, that a preemptive, unilateral use of force is difficult to
justify at this time. We fear that resort to force, under these circumstances,
would not meet the strict conditions in Catholic teaching for overriding the
strong presumption against the use of military force. Of particular concern
are the traditional just war criteria of just cause, right authority,
probability of success, proportionality and noncombatant immunity.
Just cause. What is the casus belli for a military attack on Iraq? The
Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting widely accepted moral and legal
limits on why military force may be used, limits just cause to cases in which
"the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations
[is] lasting, grave and certain." (#2309) Is there clear and adequate evidence
of a direct connection between Iraq and the attacks of September 11th or clear
and adequate evidence of an imminent attack of a grave nature? Is it wise to
dramatically expand traditional moral and legal limits on just cause to
include preventive or preemptive uses of military force to overthrow
threatening regimes or to deal with the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction? Should not a distinction be made between efforts to change
unacceptable behavior of a government and efforts to end that government"s
existence?
Legitimate authority. The moral credibility of the use of military force also
depends heavily on whether there is legitimate authority for using force to
topple the Iraqi government. In our judgment, decisions of such gravity
require compliance with U.S. constitutional imperatives, broad consensus
within our nation, and some form of international sanction, preferably by the
UN Security Council. That is why your decision to seek congressional and
United Nations approval is so important. With the Holy See, we would be deeply
skeptical about unilateral uses of military force, particularly given the
troubling precedents involved.
Probability of success and proportionality. The use of force must have
"serious prospects for success" and "must not produce evils and disorders
graver than the evil to be eliminated" (Catechism, #2309). War against Iraq
could have unpredictable consequences not only for Iraq but for peace and
stability elsewhere in the Middle East. Would preventive or preemptive force
succeed in thwarting serious threats or, instead, provoke the very kind of
attacks that it is intended to prevent? How would another war in Iraq impact
the civilian population, in the short- and long-term? How many more innocent
people would suffer and die, or be left without homes, without basic
necessities, without work? Would the United States and the international
community commit to the arduous, long-term task of ensuring a just peace or
would a post-Saddam Iraq continue to be plagued by civil conflict and
repression, and continue to serve as a destabilizing force in the region?
Would the use of military force lead to wider conflict and instability? Would
war against Iraq detract from our responsibility to help build a just and
stable order in Afghanistan and undermine the broader coalition against
terrorism?
Norms governing the conduct of war. While we recognize improved capability and
serious efforts to avoid directly targeting civilians in war, the use of
massive military force to remove the current government of Iraq could have
incalculable consequences for a civilian population that has suffered so much
from war, repression, and a debilitating embargo.
We raise these troubling questions to contribute to the vital national debate
about ends and means, risks and choices reflecting our responsibilities as
pastors and teachers. Our assessment of these questions leads us to urge you
to pursue actively alternatives to war. We hope you will persist in the very
frustrating and difficult challenges of building broad international support
for a new, more constructive and effective approach to press the Iraqi
government to live up to its international obligations. This approach could
include continued diplomatic efforts aimed, in part, at resuming rigorous,
meaningful inspections; effective enforcement of the military embargo;
maintenance of political sanctions and much more carefully-focused economic
sanctions which do not threaten the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians;
non-military support for those in Iraq who offer genuine democratic
alternatives; and other legitimate ways to contain and deter aggressive Iraqi
actions.
We respectfully urge you to step back from the brink of war and help lead the
world to act together to fashion an effective global response to Iraq's
threats that conforms with traditional moral limits on the use of military
force.
Sincerely yours,
Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory
Bishop of Belleville
President
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