Moral obligation to Iraqi people seen for U.S. whenever troops leave

Published: 2007-09-21

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The United States has a moral obligation to the people of Iraq that must be met regardless of when U.S. troops ultimately withdraw from that country. That was the conclusion of the panelists at "Exit or No Exit? Morality and Withdrawal from Iraq," a New York forum held Sept. 18 and attended by 450 people on the Lincoln Center campus of Jesuit-run Fordham University. "We must distinguish between the ethics of intervention and the ethics of exit," said Gerard F. Powers, director of policy studies at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame and former director of the U.S. bishops' Office of International Justice and Peace. "The U.S. intervention may have been an optional, immoral war, but the post-intervention U.S. involvement is not an optional moral commitment," he said. Quoting the U.S. Catholic bishops, Powers said that the U.S. intervention "has brought with it a new set of moral responsibilities to help Iraqis secure and rebuild their country and to address the consequences of war for the region and the world."

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