British public opinion is increasingly becoming anti-war

LONDON, December 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Britain’s religious leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches and leading opposition politicians expressed opposition Thursday, December 26, against possible U.S.-led war on Iraq, in messages aimed at Prime Minister Tony Blair accusing him of moral surrender over Iraq.

Using his traditional Christmas message to call for peace, the spiritual head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said it was those which society regarded as “wise men” who “can’t help making the most immense mistakes of all”, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

He made a withering criticism of “strategists who know all the possible ramifications of politics, miss the huge and obvious things and create yet more havoc and suffering,” the British daily The Independent said.

Two thousand years after Christ was born, he said, “communications are more effective than ever in human history; analysis of national and international situations becomes ever more subtle; intelligence and surveillance provide more and more material. We have endless theoretical perspectives on human behavior, individual and collective.

“And still the innocent are killed.”

Meanwhile in a letter to London’s Times newspaper, Charles Kennedy, the leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, warned that an baseless attack on Iraq will cause Britain the loss of international community support.

“To drift into a war without clear evidence of Iraq's current involvement in constructing and deploying weapons of mass destruction, or of its deliberate non-compliance with the inspectors, would be to risk losing the support of the international community.”

“Without such evidence, the strain on Arab governments will be insupportable. A sharp increase in terrorist activity will be highly likely,” added the letter co-signed by other leading members of the Liberal Democrats, Britain’s third main party.

In a separate letter to the Times, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Lancaster, Patrick O’Donoghue wrote: “If war does happen, the catastrophic human, environmental and political consequences for the Middle East and the entire world could be disastrous.”

Meanwhile in the Mirror, Blair’s own Roman Catholic priest accused the British leader of moral surrender over Iraq.

“Man must live by the will to integrity rather than the will to power,” Father Timothy Russ, priest at the church attended by the Blairs on Christmas Day, told the Mirror.

“The prime minister is caught up in the will to power game - and that is his problem. He has had a moral surrender from his past. His positions have changed over the years,” Russ added.

Blair is the staunchest supporter of Washington’s hard line on Iraq and last week told British troops to be prepared for action against the country if its President Saddam Hussein fails to comply with U.N. demands to disarm, AFP reported.

Delivering his Christmas Day message, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, told worshippers in London: “We must never give up and assume that war is inevitable.

“Let us pray today, therefore, that each one of us, particularly those involved in international diplomacy and politics, will maintain our permanent commitment to building and maintaining peace in our world,” Murphy-O’Connor said Wednesday.

A senior Church of England cleric, the Archbishop of York, David Hope, said war as a method of resolving international disputes was incompatible with the teaching of Jesus.

Giving his Christmas Day sermon, he told worshippers that no matter how good weaponry was, mistakes would be made, resulting in the suffering and death of innocent people.

But given Iraq’s disregard of successive United Nations resolutions, “it may yet become necessary to contemplate some form of military intervention,” he said.

Hope stressed such action should take place only in the most extreme of circumstances and with the endorsement of the international community through a fresh U.N. resolution.

Pope John Paul II kept up the Vatican’s campaign against war in Iraq during his Christmas Day message by calling for efforts to snuff out the “ominous smoldering” of conflict in the Middle East.

“There rises today an urgent appeal to the world not to yield to mistrust, suspicion and discouragement even though the tragic reality of terrorism feeds uncertainties and fears,” the 82-year-old pontiff said.