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Just War or Mere Crusade

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From The Globe and Mail.

A sampling:

Is that not why both Washington and London have been working overtime to convince people that the cause is just? But as the Pope and the Canadian Council of Churches have shown, the case has yet to be made. And that is probably why the champions of an Iraq war have turned to another theological concept to shore up support. It's the Crusade, a word that literally means a war of the Cross but has broadened its meaning to include a struggle for a noble objective.

In this case, it is the vision of a democratic Middle East. Gone, we are told, would be not only Saddam Hussein and his tyranny. Gone, too, would be all the dictators (carefully unnamed). In would come government by the people and, with it, prosperity and justice for all.

It is not a new appeal. The First World War was kept alive by assuring the public it was "the war to end wars." The 1991 Persian Gulf war was based on the promise of a new world order. But is there reason to believe a new crusade in the Middle East can do any more for it than the medieval crusades did?

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