White House Rejects Pope's Iraq Argument

[Anonymous]

White House Rejects Pope's Iraq Argument

WASHINGTON - The White House rejected on Tuesday the Vatican (news - web sites)'s argument that there is no moral justification for a pre-emptive war in Iraq (news - web sites) as President Bush (news - web sites) prepared to meet with a special envoy sent by Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II.


The pope has said a war would be a "defeat for humanity" and maintains the conflict would be neither morally nor legally justified. He wants Iraq to be disarmed through methods short of military force.


Asked about that contention, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said Tuesday: "Clearly, the fact that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) has violated the United Nations (news - web sites) Security Council resolutions means he is not following the legal path that the world has set out to preserve peace."


"And the president thinks the most immoral act of all would be if Saddam Hussein would somehow transfer his weapons to terrorists who could use them against us," Fleischer said. "And so, the president does view the use of force as a matter of legality, as a matter of morality and as a matter of protecting the American people."


Fleischer added that Bush respects the opinions of those who disagree with him and said the president is eager to "find out what the message of the Pope is on this topic."


Bush is to meet Wednesday with Cardinal Pio Laghi, a former papal nuncio to the United States, who said he will come bearing the pope's warning on war.


The meeting and Laghi's message pose a tough political problem for Bush, who has aggressively courted Roman Catholic voters after splitting the Catholic vote in 2000 with Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites). Catholics made up a quarter of the 2000 electorate.

------------------