Cardinal Martino: Iraq War “Was Useless and Served no Purpose”
Sept 15, 2004
The capture of Saddam Hussein last Saturday may help bring peace to Iraq but it does not change the fact that “the war was useless, and served no purpose”, Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, said on Tuesday.
(The Tablet, 20 December 2003) Cardinal Martino also criticised television footage of the captured Iraqi dictator released by US forces, expressing his unhappiness that he was “treated like a cow”.
Cardinal Martino, who was for many years the Vatican’s representative at the United Nations in New York, was speaking at a press conference to present Pope John Paul II’s World Day of Peace message. Offering the first substantial Vatican reaction to the capture and detention of Saddam by US forces, he made it clear that the deposed leader should receive a fair trial for crimes during his long dictatorship but should not be executed. While he hoped that Saddam’s capture would contribute “to peace and the reconstruction of Iraq”, he said it would be “illusory to think that it will repair the damage caused by that great defeat for humanity which war always represents”.
Cardinal Martino was displeased at the repeated TV images showing a bedraggled and bewildered Saddam undergoing a medical examination shortly after his detention, when a medical orderly shone a torch into his teeth and appeared to be checking his hair for lice.
“What caused me pain was seeing this ruined man, treated like a cow, whose teeth are being examined. They could have spared us those pictures”, Cardinal Martino told reporters.
“I felt compassion for him”, the cardinal said, adding that Saddam was “a man of tragedy”, with heavy responsibilities for the crimes he committed.
Asked if Saddam should face the death penalty, the cardinal answered: “You know well that the Pope has spoken repeatedly against capital punishment. I have spoken against capital punishment. The European Union has abandoned capital punishment. The international tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia do not even consider imposing the death penalty.”
Cardinal Martino: Iraq War “Was Useless and Served no Purpose”