Pope Benedict XVI: "Nothing Positive From Iraq"

[Brando @$$ Fat]

Pope: 'Nothing Positive' From Iraq
By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer
2 hours ago

VATICAN CITY - In an Easter litany of the world's suffering, Pope Benedict XVI lamented that "nothing positive" is happening in Iraq and decried the unrest in Afghanistan and bloodshed in Africa and Asia.

"How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world," the pontiff told tens of thousands gathered Sunday at St. Peter's Square on what is Christianity's most joyful feast day.

Benedict, delivering his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" Easter address from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, read out a long list of troubling current events, saying he was thinking of the "terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons."

"Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability," Benedict said. "In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees."

He singled out what he called the "catastrophic, and sad to say, underestimated humanitarian situation" in Darfur as well as other African places of suffering, including violence and looting in Congo, fighting in Somalia _ which, he said, drove away the prospect of peace _ and the "grievous crisis" in Zimbabwe, marked by crackdowns on dissidents, a disastrous economy and severe corruption.

Benedict called for a negotiated solution to end the drawn-out, bloody conflict in Sri Lanka, and said East Timor needs reconciliation ahead of elections.

Earlier he celebrated Easter Mass on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica under hazy sunshine.

The voices of choir boys rang across the square. Wearing golden vestments, the pope gripped a slender, silver crucifix as clerics sprinkled incense across the steps. The altar area was ablaze with color _ red tulips, orange tiger lilies and yellow broom plants were among the flowers delivered from the Netherlands _ and at the end of the service the pope thanked the Dutch for the gift.

In an unusual touch for the Vatican's Easter Mass, black-robed clerics intoned a long chant from the Byzantine liturgy. This year, Eastern and Western celebrations coincided. The two rites often celebrate Easter on different dates because of different church calendars.

Orthodox faithful in the Balkans, in Russia, in Greece and other places celebrated Easter with long, traditional ceremonies. Russia made an exception to its cutoff of transport links with George to allow three charter flights of Georgians to come to Moscow for the Easter period.

Benedict ended his appearance by giving Easter greetings in dozens of languages, including Arabic and Hebrew, and giving the crowd his apostolic blessing.

After Sunday's events, Benedict heads to the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, in the Alban Hills south of Rome, for a few days of rest.

When he returns to Rome, Benedict has two important dates on his calendar: his 80th birthday on April 16, and the second anniversary of his election as pope three days later.

Advocates pressing for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty marched peacefully through Rome, ending their rally in St. Peter's Square near the end of the pope's Mass. Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said he was marching because "it happens many times that an innocent life is taken" by capital punishment.

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.js...&cvqh=itn_pope

[Jon Lyrik]

Holy shit, the Pope and I have some common ground...

[someguy]

He probably just wants us to invade Israel.

[Vong]

He's no JP II....

[Brando @$$ Fat]

Originally posted by Vong
He's no JP II....

No, but at least he's finally speaking out about it. Until now, he's only seemed concerned with gay marriage and abortion.

[Lynn7]

Nothing positive from Iraq. Hmmmmm. Interesting.

Here's what Gary Sinise has to say:

HIRSEN: What is your view of the way the media are portraying the military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan?


SINISE: It's interesting. I did an interview recently, and after the interview was over I got into a conversation with the journalist who was interviewing me who had been to Iraq as an embedded reporter; you know, fairly supportive of the media. I got into questioning why there seemed to be such an imbalance of reporting coming out of Iraq, and not just an imbalance but an omission or a confusion as to what is really going on and what is the whole truth of what is happening in Iraq, because I get a lot of other types of reports from Iraq that I never get from the media.


I'm in touch with dozens of military service members over there who are working quite diligently on their mission, accomplishing positive things, making progress, and who have a dedication and belief that what they are doing is helping, and therefore their morale is high. Yet in so many media reports we get a completely opposite view of what's happening with our military service members, that they are demoralized or broken or their morale is low and whatnot.


Granted, there probably are service members over there who don't have as high morale as somebody else might. There are a lot of people over there, and they're not going to all feel the same thing. But there's an overwhelming sense from a lot of the people that I deal with who are working cooperatively with the Iraqis on a day-to-day basis. They are making progress, and they're accomplishing positive things. Therefore they feel good about their mission, and some people who have gone would go back again.



I've talked to several people who were back here, who said, "Well, if they want me to go back, I'll go back." That doesn't sound like somebody who's angry about having gone to war, and what they did. ... A lot of people make general statements, big, sweeping, general statements. "The morale is down." That's a big, sweeping, general statement that lumps 150,000 people all into the same boat. "The Army is broken" or "The mission is not going well."



Well, there are day-to-day missions all over that country that are being accomplished by our service members, so it's not one single thing going on. There are people all over the country working with all kinds of things and doing all sorts of projects, combat related and civil affairs related, so there are many stories coming out of Iraq.


HIRSEN: What was it that you told the journalist?


SINISE: My point to this journalist [was] that I was disturbed at the media's willingness ... to go after the military regarding the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. It seemed like they could not put enough of those pictures on television enough times. We saw dozens and dozens and dozens of pictures daily, for two, three weeks, [showing] the lack of integrity of our military.


He [the journalist] said to me: "You know what, I don't care. I think we should put those pictures on every day and all the time, and I have no problem with that."


I said: "I can't disagree with you that it was a horrible misstep by a bunch of dufusses in our military, about 15 of them. But on the other hand I would say, where is the other side of the story? Why, if you're going to be so aggressive with depicting American troops in a negative manner, why not be just as aggressive to show the heroism of our service members?"


I brought up dozens of examples. There's a woman, a major, who is like a superwoman over there, helping kids and delivering kerosene lamps and pulling Iraqis out from under trucks and saving people and doing all these things. You never hear about that kind of stuff. Yet it seems like they can't wait to put bad news on.


I said, "You tell me. Why do we see one side of the story and not the other if there are two sides?" He paused, and then he said, "Well, bad news sells" – and that's all he could say.



HIRSEN: The media will respond somewhat flippantly that bad news is a hallmark of human nature. Do you find that response surprising considering this is a time of war?


SINISE: It seems like every day you could get a new piece of information that could throw you a curve. Personally, I believe that we are in a war, and I think there may be a fundamental difference with people that have varying degrees of conviction about who the enemy is, what the enemy's intentions are, whether we are actually in a war or not, who brought the war on, us or them. And there are always differing opinions about that.


Some people might not actually view this as a war. It's not like, the armada is coming; we can see it on the horizon; let's load the guns and defend the coastline. We can't do that anymore. There is an ideology out there that we have identified, that is threatening and requires response. Certainly we know that. But we're not fighting any particular country. We're fighting, basically, al-Qaida in Iraq now, and former Baathists of the Saddam Hussein regime.


There are a lot of people who didn't believe we should go to Iraq in the first place, so they're not going to view it as a war. And if they view it as a war, they view it as an illegal war, and they're not going to support it; therefore, they're not going to support the military members who are fighting it.


Personally, I believe that we are in a war. We are a country that's vulnerable. We saw that on Sept. 11.


There's no question in my mind that, given the opportunity to put a nuke in a suitcase, there are millions of people, not thousands but millions, who would dedicate themselves to detonating that nuke in one of our cities. I have no doubt in my mind. I saw it on Sept. 11. If they could have killed 300,000 instead of 3,000, they would have been all the happier about that. There's no question in my mind that that is a reality and that it has to be; that we will need our service members for many years to come and that we want to support them.


We're going to need these volunteers. That's why I get out there and support them. I believe there is an enemy and that the service members that we have are our defenders.


HIRSEN: You talk to servicemen and women regularly. Have they indicated that they're affected by the coverage of the war by the media?


SINISE: I have had some people mention it in terms of why don't they show any of the positive things that we're doing over here. I had one guy who delivered school supplies. That day they had a huge celebration in the village. It was a very cooperative day for everybody, and that to him was a big story. That was his story for the day. Instead he got back to the base and turned on the news and it was more of the same negative stuff.


It is big news every time bombs go off, and it's big news when our guys get hurt or killed. Those stories deserve to be told. But they [soldiers] might have been killed on a day when they had just accomplished some huge things and helped out a lot of people, and they would, I am sure, like that story to be told as well.


HIRSEN: Part of this is your story. You've co-founded Operation Iraqi Children. You're the national spokesman for the U.S. Disabled Veterans Life Memorial Foundation. You've been involved with veterans for a long time, and people associate you with the military, with your role as Lt. Dan in "Forrest Gump." What was it that prompted your involvement and passion for veterans' causes?


SINISE: Years ago I was involved with a group of Vietnam veterans. I had worked on some theater material, a play where I got very involved with the Vietnam veterans that the play was portraying, and that was kind of a wake-up as well.



HIRSEN: Operation Iraqi Children (http://www.operationiraqichildren.org/) is such a wonderful concept. We have many readers who would like to show their support for the military. Why do you think that this is a good way for people to do that?


SINISE: Well, Jim, I've tried to, I've been very concerned and tried to keep Operation Iraqi Children as neutral a program as possible. I don't really go out and talk about my political views. I don't do a lot of criticizing of things, banging, slamming people, because Operation Iraqi Children, no matter what my political views are or anything like that, that's not what this program is.

I believe that these kids are the future of Iraq, and so many in that part of the world have been raised to think bad things about Americans or bad things about Western culture.

I'm actually in touch with Iraqis over there who are totally supportive and totally behind the United States being there and the coalition being there, and completely appreciative of the possibilities that they have now because of what has happened in the last two or three years.

[BubbaStrangelove]

Gary Sinise!

[therealjohng]

Originally posted by someguy
He probably just wants us to invade Israel.

I laughed pretty fucking hard at that.

[QUENTIN]

Gary Sinise, well that's very interesting.

Because as Republicans will have you know, no one is more of an expert on world political affairs (especially the war in Iraq) than a Hollywood actor.

[Thrizzle]

Hell of an actor though.

[jolanar]

Ehhh. Who cares what the pope says?

P.S. Gary Sinise is awesome.

[EVILxxx]

While the negatives probably outweigh the positives saying that "no good" has occurred in Iraq is inaccurate.

[electriclite]

Originally posted by EVILxxx
While the negatives probably outweigh the positives saying that "no good" has occurred in Iraq is inaccurate.

Agreed.

[Lynn7]

I thought Sinise's respnoses were very measured- he acknowledges the negatives in Iraq but says there should be more covered about the positives going on over there too. I appreciated his tone.

[someguy]

I don't know Lynn, I have to agree with what Mo'nique says.

'wut'

[BubbaStrangelove]

I think we have just been given approval to retort to everything Bush says by quoting Sean Penn.

[Beenthere]

You did not get what he said. Nothing positive considering all the hate people of the same origin have to each other - it's anti Shia vs. Sunni stuff. The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre all over again! You don't have to say a word Islam to say it. No? O.k.

And Africa... Colonial system is awful. Post-colonial system is worse. No? O.k.

I blame Canada for everything!

[The Heart Collector]

Originally posted by EVILxxx
While the negatives probably outweigh the positives saying that "no good" has occurred in Iraq is inaccurate.

I believe what you meant was "when the negatives so resoundingly outweigh the positives, saying that "no good" has occurred in Iraq is accurate".

[EVILxxx]

Originally posted by The Heart Collector
I believe what you meant was "when the negatives so resoundingly outweigh the positives, saying that "no good" has occurred in Iraq is accurate".

No I didn't but thanks for playing.

[Brando @$$ Fat]

Originally posted by The Heart Collector
I believe what you meant was "when the negatives so resoundingly outweigh the positives, saying that "no good" has occurred in Iraq is accurate".

This pretty much sums up my opinion of the war.