The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, yesterday gave implicit support to the tough line taken by Britain and the US on Iraq - in sharp contrast to an open letter from eight Church of England bishops and two of the (Anglican) Church in Wales. The bishops' letter warned that military intervention would contravene the conditions for a just war. In a statement of the Church of England's General Synod, Dr Carey said: "So long as President Saddam Hussein's present attitude continues, there is no risk-free option, and to leave the Iraqi president defying the will of the UN and developing a greatly increased capability in horrible weapons of mass destruction would be a potentially disastrous outcome, especially for the people of Iraq and Iraq's neighbours".
Dr Carey said that by far the most humane, just and peaceful way forward would be for Mr Saddam to comply with UN requirements on weapons inspections in full.
In their open letter - which Dr Carey did not refer to - the 10 bishops, led by Bishop Rowan Williams of Monmouth, said they shared London's and Washington's concern that every effort should be made to stop the damage being done by Mr Saddam's regime to his own people and to the stability of the entire region. But, they went on: "Any action that will (as in the first Gulf conflict) involve large-scale civilian casualties in Iraq leaves the western nations in a weak moral position." Moreover, "military intervention by western nations is likely to reinforce the already deep Muslim mistrust of the West."
The bishops pointed out that the just war theory required a reasonable calculation of success in attaining clearly defined objectives, once all other avenues had been exhausted. "We are not convinced that this applies here," they said.