wfn.org | Pre-emptive Iraq attack not 'just war,' most Presbyterians say in survey

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Note #7456 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

02-October-2002
02381

Pre-emptive Iraq attack not 'just war,' most Presbyterians say in survey

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - A minority of Presbyterians view the elimination of weapons of
mass destruction as a just reason for the United States to go to war,
according to results from a recent Presbyterian Panel survey.  

Asked whether or not "to pre-emptively destroy weapons of mass destruction"
is a "just reason for the United States government to go to war," only 43% of
members, 39% of elders and pastors, and 34% of specialized clergy say that it
is.  

The survey, sent to more than 3,000 randomly sampled Presbyterians, was
mailed in May 2002, before much of this summer's public discussion about a
possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq to destroy that country's apparent stockpile
of biological and chemical weapons and to halts its efforts to develop a
nuclear bomb.  

"These findings indicate that, in the abstract, most Presbyterians don't
believe war is justified solely to eliminate another country's weapons of
mass destruction," said Jack Marcum, administrator of the Presbyterian Panel.
 "That suggests that at the very least a majority of Presbyterians have
reservations about any military attack by the U.S. on Iraq."

Fewer Presbyterians have qualms about U.S. involvement in wars undertaken for
certain other reasons.	

Nine in ten members (94%) and pastors (90%) view an armed conflict to respond
to an attack on the U.S. as just, and seven in ten (71% and 70%,
respectively) agree an armed response is justified if a close ally were
attacked.  

A small majority (53% of members, 52% of pastors) also sees as just going to
war when required by treaty obligations.  And a majority of pastors (56%),
though only a third of members (33%), finds just the U.S. going to war for
"the protection of human rights of people in another country."

Relatively few Presbyterians see as just the United States going to war for
"the protection of U.S. economic interests abroad" (members, 22%; pastors,
14%) or "the replacement of a government that seems to be hostile to our way
of life" (15% of members and 8% of pastors).

Further, few Presbyterians see a war to replace "a government for acts of
terrorism believed but not proven to be supported by that government" as just
(members, 21%; pastors, 12%).  But most respondents don't equate that
description with pre-invasion Afghanistan, Marcum noted.  

"Large majorities of these same Presbyterian panelists"-members, 81%;
pastors, 59% -"indicated support for the war on terrorism in another Panel
survey done last fall," he told the Presbyterian News Service.	

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