They said it: words of wisdumb and insight

Catholic New Times, June 20, 2004

"Why should we hear about body bags. Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

--Barbara Bush, mother of U.S. president on ABC's Good Morning America, March 18, 2003

"The president's personality and religious faith--in combination--make it impossible for him to have serious second thoughts or even to admit any ambiguity. If a decision is 'right,' then it is right no matter what. Many Americans, perhaps a slight majority, think this is 'strong' leadership. My feeling is that it edges toward religions fanaticism and is not altogether different from the 'rightness' of Osama bin Laden's faith. If there is a mistake, it is not the president's mistake. It's God's mistake because God told him he had made the right decision."

--Rev. Andrew Greeley on Iraq war

"You have proved that the United States is not an evenhanded peace partner ... Your unqualified support of Sharon's extra-judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories, and now your endorsement of Sharon's unilateral plan are costing our country its credibility, prestige and friends. This endorsement is not even in the best interests of Israel."

--Fifty former U.S. diplomats in an open letter to U.S. President Bush last month:

"Saddam Hussein now sits in a prison cell, and Iraqi men and women are no longer carried to torture chambers and rape rooms ..."

--Bush, remarks on "Winston Churchill and the War on Terror," Feb. 4, 2004

"The recent Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Gregis takes up a phrase that was used at the Tenth Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that describes the bishop as a "prophet of justice." It is a striking and original concept. The papal document goes on to develop in some detail what being 'prophet of justice' involves. The bishop is called 'the defender and father of the poor' and 'the defender of human rights.' He is the one who 'proclaims the moral teaching of the church' and 'who proclaims the social teaching of the church.' He is the one who 'proclaims hope,' who 'proclaims peace.' He is the one who 'denounces vengeance' and 'fosters forgiveness and love.'"

--Diarmuid Martin, Coadjutor Archbishop of Dublin, in a retreat to Canadian bishops.

"We should have been there shoulder to shoulder with our allies in Iraq."

--Stephen Harper, Canadian Conservative leader

"All these papers are on notice. They've seen what happened. They were hustled. When not one major newspaper questions a war as dubious as this one--leaving it to a handful of columnists to question the motives, tactics and strategy behind the war--maybe 'hustled' is the right word. Why did so many foreign newspapers--even in nations like Britain and Spain whose governments backed the war--refuse to be hustled? Why did American newspapers, which learned in Vietnam and Watergate the importance of questioning official statements, roll over on Iraq?"

--Intelligence expert Thomas Powers in the Columbia Journalism Review