War in Iraq

I'm not a pacifist, I do believe that on very rare occasions, the use of military force can be justified, although it should only be used as a last resort, after all other means of resolving the conflict have been exhausted. In the Christian tradition this is described as the 'Just War Theory', which whilst recognising that war is always an evil thing (because innocent people suffer), there may be times when it can be justified, and may be the lesser of two evils. For example, the fight against the Nazi's in the Second World War was I believe justified - although the blanket bombing of cities such as Dresden wasn't. There is of course a strong Christian tradition of pacifism (see http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/pacifism.htm for a detailed look at this subject).


The most recent Iraq war was in my opinion not justified, and I like many others in this country and around the world was opposed to this war. I don't think anyone was sad to see an end to Saddam Hussein's evil regime, but is Iraq and the world any better for it? We were led to believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that this was the justification for going to war. Despite wide spread searches, no WMD have been discovered. Instead Iraq has been plunged into sectarian violence.


Today the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has released a report in which they estimate that 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the US led invasion in 2003, that is an average of 500 deaths every single day. Every day there are more reports of abductions and murders in Iraq. The results of this particular war have been to destabilise not only Iraq but the Middle East as a whole, and create a new recruiting ground for terrorists, and giving rise to radical Islamic groups.



Publicly George W Bush & Tony Blair continue to support the war in Iraq, but I wonder whether privately they now regret their decision to go to war, and knowing what we know now, would they still feel it was justified?