Some of the clearest opposition to war in Norway has come from Christian leaders, who argue against the war on principled neo-pacifist grounds: Saddam is evil, but war far more. As bishop Rosemarie Köhn puts it,

I'm against war. I don't believe it solves anything in our time. With today's weapons of mass destructions, civilians will be harmed, no matter what is being claimed.

Notice the qualification "in our time", vital to neo-pacifism. War may have been necessary 60 years ago, when it was us fighting for our freedom. Now we are free, rich and secure, and can afford to believe in something ethically more comforting.

It's sad having to tell a well-meaning idealist like Köhn, someone who only wants the best for everyone, that what they believe in is evil. It's sad having to point out that thoughts and ideals that sound good when spoken, become evil when put into practice. But it has to be done. Ivar Kristiansen, an MP for the Conservative Party, points his finger directly at the Norwegian Church for its indirect support of brutal terror regimes.

Why aren't anyone marching to protest that the butchers of Saddam Hussein cuts out the tongues those who dissent against his dictatorship? .. If one had followed the recommendations of the Church and the peace movement, Taliban would still ruled Afghanistan, criminals of the worst kind, who commit persecution, and oppressed women in grotesque ways. .. Now we can establish democracy in that country. .. When the Church and the peace movement fill the streets to protest an alternative like this, they also undermine the possibility of peace. .. It's easy to protest on an idealistic basis in safe Norway. Here, most people have forgotten what it means to be the victim of a totalitarian regime.

I was about to say "amen to that", but thought better of it.

Why did you give girls the vote?

Why have you ordained them?

??????

You'd think someone would have mentioned to her that, in our times, war has the potential to be less bloody than ever before, thanks to more accurate technology. Instead of firebombing a whole city, we can knock out exactly what we want to knock out and leave the rest untouched.
If anyone is going to use WMD's, it is Saddam, and the goal of the war is to stop him before he does that.

Portions of The Leftist's Creed:

I do not believe in abortion, and I would never personally have an abortion, but I believe each woman must make her own decision about abortion with the help of her doctor and her God.

I do not believe in war, and I would never personally declare war, but I believe that each President must make his own decision about war with the help of his Defense Secretary and his National Security Advisor.

(The second entry is meant to be ironic, of course.)

One wonders how these so-called Christians can reconcile their accommodation of dictators like Saddam Hussein and ignoring the suffering of the Iraqi people with their own scripture. I'd recommend they read Matthew chapter 25, verses 41-46:

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

All I can say for those hypocrites is, "Burn, baby, burn."

I like your thinking Bjorn. Being an American of partial Norwegian heritage myself I am happy to see some non-socialist politics associated with anything Norwegian.

I have been thinking about the best way to counter this neo-pacifist thinking. If these views are really due to the very safety and prosperity of western culture, perhaps war and the use of force can be likened to law enforcement.

The argument for public safety in using force to apprehend violent criminals could be extended to the apprehension of violent dictators.

Of course most of these neo-pacifists probably think that murderers are not responsible for their crimes either and shouldn't be punished. They usually agree that they cannot continue allowed to continue committing crimes.

And to prove there stupid people aren't just in Norway (via Dean Esmay)

Kiwi caught speeding semi-naked on motorised bar stool
A New Zealand man ended up in court after he was seen speeding semi-naked down a road on a motorised barstool with his backside on fire.

Neighbours reported John Sullivan to the police and he has now been sentenced to carry out 200 hours' community work.

Sullivan, of Tauranga, confessed to having "had a few" and said he shouldn't have been on the road on the motorised barstool, which he claimed could reach 50mph.

The flames come courtesy of one of Mr Sullivan's party tricks which involves a piece of rolled-up newspaper and a cigarette lighter.

Sullivan was upset taxpayers' money was spent prosecuting him, but conceded that driving a vehicle with no warrant and no registration was probably pushing the law a bit far.

"One cop wasn't too happy but the other two were laughing their heads off," he told the New Zealand Herald.

From today's Jerusalem Post:

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The Iraqis had come with placards reading "Freedom for Iraq" and "American rule, a hundred thousand times better than Takriti tyranny!"

But the tough guys who supervised the march would have none of that. Only official placards, manufactured in thousands and distributed among the "spontaneous" marchers, were allowed. These read "Bush and Blair, baby-killers," " Not in my name," "Freedom for Palestine" and "Indict Bush and Sharon."

Not one placard demanded that Saddam should disarm to avoid war. The goons also confiscated photographs showing the tragedy of Halabja, the Kurdish town where Saddam's forces gassed 5,000 people to death in 1988.

We managed to reach some of the stars of the show, including Reverend Jesse Jackson, the self-styled champion of American civil rights. One of our group, Salima Kazim, an Iraqi grandmother, managed to attract the reverend's attention and told him how Saddam Hussein had murdered her three sons because they had been dissidents in the Ba'ath Party; and how one of her grandsons had died in the war Saddam had launched against Kuwait in 1990.

"Could I have the microphone for one minute to tell the people about my life?" 78-year old Salima demanded. The reverend was not pleased. "Today is not about Saddam Hussein," he snapped.....

....Fadel Sultani, president of the National Association of Iraqi authors, [said]...."I had a few questions for the marchers. Did they not realize that oppression, torture and massacre of innocent civilians are also forms of war? Are the antiwar marchers only against a war that would liberate Iraq, or do they also oppose the war Saddam has been waging against our people for a generation?"

Sultani could have told the peaceniks how Saddam's henchmen killed dissident poets and writers by pushing page after page of forbidden books down their throats until they choked.

Hashem al-Iqabi, one of Iraq's leading writers and intellectuals, had hoped the marchers would mention the fact that Saddam had driven almost four million Iraqis out of their homes and razed more than 6,000 villages to the ground.

"The death and destruction caused by Saddam in our land is the worst since Nebuchadnezzar," he said. "These prosperous, peaceful and fat Europeans are marching in support of evil incarnate." He said that, watching the march, he felt Nazism was "alive and well and flexing its muscles in Hyde Park."

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