Southern Baptist Leader Terms Troop Withdrawal Immoral
Richard Land
From EthicsDaily
A Southern Baptist ethicist and ardent supporter of the war in Iraq said on public television it would be immoral for the United States to withdraw troops too soon."Just war has as one its important principles proportionality, and what are the costs of staying and what are the costs of going," Richard Land, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission said on PBS' "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly."
"I think it's very important for us to take into consideration at every step the Iraqis who have believed in us, the Iraqis who have cooperated with us, the Iraqis who have fought side by side with us," Land said. "Twelve Iraqi soldiers have died for every American solider that has died in this war. And we cannot have a repeat of the disgraceful exit we had from Viet Nam, where we left our friends behind and to a terrible fate."
Land, one of three ethicists interviewed on the program, acknowledged that Iraqis "are ambivalent about our presence there."
"A lot of them understand that things could get really bad if we leave, that there could be a bloodbath," he said. "In fact I think there's a danger of a regional war between the Sunnis and the Shia, with people coming in from the outside...."
"That's the administration's argument," host Bob Abernethy interjected.
"Well I think it's a very real concern," Land responded. "I think we need clearly to be working toward reducing our footprint and increasing the Iraqis' footprint in their own country as quickly as is feasible."
Part of just-war theory, Land said, is, "Will the good gained outweigh the damage caused?'" READ IT ALL
Bill McCartney
