Let’s Join the Pope

After the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center, one of the convicted terrorists told a New York federal judge before sentencing that one of the principal reasons he had committed the attack was because of all the Iraqi children who had died as a result of the U.S. government’s embargo and blockade against the Iraqi people. Despite that open and public announcement, the U.S. government insisted on continuing its embargo and blockade. Long before the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Osama bin Laden openly and publicly cited the deaths of the Iraqi children as a principal reason for his decision to extend his war to American civilians, and still the U.S. government insisted on continuing its embargo. According to the Associated Press, on December 11 Pope John Paul II publicly called “for an end to the embargo on Iraq and said the Church would share in the ‘unjustly inflicted’ suffering of Iraqis on Friday, a day of fast for Catholics.” Isn’t it time for the American people to stand against their own government on this issue and join the Pope in calling for an end to the embargo? Isn’t it in our personal interests and in the interests of our families to do so?