In a real sense, Saddam today is holding the people of Iraq hostage, while America kills the hostages. A few years ago, Madeleine Albright was asked on 60 Minutes if she believed that a policy that killed so many children was worth it. No, Madam Secretary, it is not worth it. A policy that sentences thousands of Iraqi children to death every month, because their parents will not rise up and overthrow a tyrant, is unrighteous and immoral. For centuries, philosophers and theologians have grappled with the question of under what circumstances a just war may be fought.
Christian doctrine demands that such a war be defensive, and never aggressive.
It must be waged only as a last resort, after all other means of negotiating peace have been exhausted. The violence used must be proportional to the threat. There must be a prospect of victory so that soldiers are not sent to their death for no purpose. Today, U.S. sanctions on Iraq contravene virtually every tenet of the Just War doctrine. And it is impossible to argue that the death of scores of thousands of children is a price proportional to the threat associated with Saddam Hussein's survival in power.