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I am a conservative evangelical Christian and a member of the Republican Party and I believe that George W. Bush‘s War in Iraq was wrong.
I am not alone in my conviction, either.
Months before the invasion, Republican Congressman Ron Paul was urging restraint in our response to the events of 9/11 and opposing the proposed war. Paul’s consistent stand against the invasion continues to this day.
Paul is what many would call a “paleoconservative.” Paleoconservatives are ideological descendents of the Old Right--men in the early 20th century like Robert Taft—and differ significantly from the brand of conservatism represented today by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin.
Paul, as a paleoconservative, is fiercely against war and foreign military expansion—what he calls “empire-building”. He agrees with John Quincy Adams’ beliefs on foreign policy: “Our republic goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all, but the champion and vindicator only of her own.”
Paul often cites the Christian just-war theory when talking about his opposition to the War in Iraq. The theory is more than 1,500 years old and has its origins in the thinking of Saint Augustine. The theory lays down six conditions that must be met for a war to be considered just:
1. Just Cause. We should only go to war to defend ourselves against an attack or to stop a grave evil from happening and those committing that evil.
2. Comparative justice. There are often injustices on both sides of a struggle. The injustices on one side must greatly outweigh the injustices on the other side.
3. Legitimate authority. Military force should only be used by a legitimate government. Vigilantism is wrong.
4. Right intention. We should only go to war to stop injustices from happening or to bring justice where injustice has happened. It is unjust to go to war for material gain (or any other advantages) for a nation.
5. Probability of success. Military force should not be used for a cause that is considered futile. If the destruction of life outweighs the good that can be achieved we should not go to war.
6. Last resort. War must always be resorted to only when all other means of diplomacy have been exhausted. We should never be eager to jump into a war.
Paul believes that the Iraq War does not meet these criteria for a just war. I am inclined to agree. Much light has been shed on the process that led us up to the invasion of Iraq. It was a time when most of the nation was angry at the people who had brought so much pain and terror to our lives on September 11, 2001. And human beings are prone to be unbalanced, to overcorrect.
There is also good evidence to suggest that people in the Bush administration were willing to act preemptively against Iraq for some time before we invaded in 2003. Dick Cheney has supported the ideas of neoconservative writer Irving Kristol. Kristol’s books advocate the same foreign policy that the Bush administration adopted after 9/11.
And William Odom, a retired Lieutenant General under Ronald Reagan and former National Security Agency director, has pointed out that pro-Israel lobbies like the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and other neoconservative groups had a lot of clout in the Bush administration. Support for Israel often went hand-in-hand with support for the War in Iraq. They are related.
Many people—both Republicans and Democrats--bought into the administration’s reasoning for the necessity of the war. Republicans were overwhelmingly supportive of the war. Ron Paul and a few others were the lone critics of the war in the Republican Party.
I voted for Bush in the presidential election of 2004. It was my very first election. Like many conservative Christians at the time, I believed that George W. Bush shared my faith and ethics. He was pro-life. He said that his favorite philosopher was Jesus Christ. He even campaigned on the promise of reduced government--both at home and abroad.
I am not in a position to say whether or not Bush’s Christian faith was authentic or not. That judgment belongs to God alone. Only he can peer into men’s hearts. But I believe I can, with relative confidence, say that the War in Iraq was wrong, even un-Christian.
That so many in the evangelical Christian community were in favor of the invasion not only says a lot about their political loyalty, but also about their theology. The Bible and Christian theology teach that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world and that we must be very careful not to confuse Christ’s kingdom with the kingdoms(or nations) of this world. Many prominent Christians have since begun to re-think their position on Iraq.
One of them is Chuck Colson. Colson is the President of the evangelical ministry Prison Fellowship, and he recently admitted that the War in Iraq was a mistake. On a November 4 Breaking Point radio broadcast entitled “Afghanistan and Just War,” Colson said that he had initially supported the War in Iraq because Donald Rumsfeld had personally told him that Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction.
As President Obama makes decisions on our future in Afghanistan, I believe that Christians who are involved in both parties should work towards convincing party leadership to adopt the just-war theory as part of the parties’ official position on foreign policy. One does not need to be a Christian to see the obvious merits of the theory. And vigorously adhering to it can help us avoid another war like Iraq, regardless of which party is in power.
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