Bishops want to apologise for Iraq war

From the Times:

"BISHOPS of the Church of England want all Britain's Christian leaders to get together in public to say sorry for the war in Iraq and its aftermath.

The bishops say that the Government is not likely to show remorse so the churches should. They want to organise a major gathering with senior figures from the Muslim community to make a 'public act of repentance'".

How sweet - apologising for something they didn't even do, those lovely Christians. The precedents for this?

"The bishops cite as precedents the official statements by the Vatican expressing sorrow for the Christian persecution of the Jewish people throughout the ages, the repentance by the Anglican Church in Japan for its complicity in Japanese aggression during the Second World War and the regret expressed by leaders of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa for their theological and political backing of apartheid."

Forget the Japan thing (not that it's insignificant) and just focus on 1 and 3. Have you ever? Words fail me - they really do...

"The bishops cite a 'long litany' of errors in the West's handling of Iraq, including its past support for Saddam Hussein, its willingness to sell him weapons and the suffering caused to the Iraqi people by sanctions."

Yes, supporting Saddam Hussein was a Bad Idea - largely due to the fact that he was a megalomaniac sadist that was an enemy to his population and to his neighbours. Sanctions were supposed to contain him, which they did. But it was the people who suffered, whilst the regime survived with contemptuous ease. That's why I supported regime change. Morality consists of the existence of real alternatives, bish - so out with it, what was yours?

There's various other pieces of drivel - all couched in the language of "understanding", which could bring a tear to a glass eye:

"The bishops plead for understanding of Iran's nuclear ambitions. 'The public and political rhetoric that Iran is a rogue regime, an outpost of tyranny, is as fallacious as the Iranian description of the US as the Great Satan.'"

Since the USA - unless you believe in the existence of Satan (and lots of other little Satans, presumably) - can't be "the Great Satan", the comparison is of course completely ridiculous. Someone tell Bish that it is not fallacious to describe Iran as an "outpost of tyranny".

Bish goes on:

"They go on to condemn the Western style of democracy...describing it as 'deeply flawed'"

Now here we're on to some agreement: one of the major flaws in ours that immediately springs to mind is the existence of an established church, with the accompanying presence of unelected bishops warming seats in the House of Lords...