Neil Cavuto Misstates (or Lies About) Pope John Paul II's Position on Iraq
Reported by Melanie - April 4, 2005
Neil Cavuto (I'll be generous, for now) vastly misstated Pope John Paul II's position on the Iraq war today (April 4, 2005) on Your World w/Neil Cavuto.
Hussein Ibish of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee was a guest. (Fox identified him as being from the "Progressive Muslim Unit," whatever that is.) Hussein was speaking about Pope John Paul's pacifism and about his frequent support for people on both sides of an issue.
Ibish: "I think he impressed a lot of people in the Arab and Islamic world by taking a strong stance against the war in Iraq and by taking, by rejecting, you know, very categorically the idea of preemptive warfare, and what have you. So, he was respected both as a religious figure but also as a political figure who was able to be a friend of Israel and a friend of the Palestinians at the same time. Something we might want to..."
Cavuto, interrupting: "Well, to be fair, his views were not that black and white on the war in Iraq, but, Hussein thank you very much."
Ibish: "No. I think you're wrong about that."
Cavuto: "Well, we can argue but I don't want to argue with you today because I like you."
Comment: No, Neil, Hussein Ibish is right and you're wrong. The Pope was adamantly against the Iraq war (see below). His views were very black and white. Given Fox's (cynical, in my opinion) wall-to-wall coverage of the Pope's life and death, it's unseemly, to say the least, to simultaneously denigrate him by lying about his political positions.
[O]nly peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society.
War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations.
The pope spoke out forcefully against the U.S. war in Iraq, and reproached George W. Bush about it, both in public and private, at the last of their four visits.
