I supported both of the Bushes’ Iraq wars. I am a veteran. I am a registered Independent, not some Democratic operative. I tend to vote Republican because Democrats are like suicidal sheep in their aversion to fighting. No one enjoys it, but it is a necessity in the world in which we live if one is to survive.

There exists in Christianity what is referred to as the Just War Doctrine. No matter what antiwar.com, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International or liberals in general say, there are certain times when it is OK –actually a moral obligation– to dispatch evil by killing people.

Even Jesus Christ himself exhibited righteous anger when he drove the moneychangers out of the temple. Anger, when used to right a wrong, and when measured, is a good thing.

In order for a war to be just and remain so, there are several rigid tests that must first be applied and several conditions, all of which must be maintained.

There must be a tyrant or aggressor causing pain and misery. The pain and misery must be tangible and long-term. Going to war for raw materials or to conquer is not a justification. Iraq was not an immediate threat to us but Saddam Hussein gassed, tortured, and murdered thousands.

According to the Doctrine, that is an evil that we are obliged to confront if all other means fail. I believe we have met the first requirement, both in Iraq and the War on Terror. The terrorists are aggressors who are attempting to conquer and if that fails, to kill. They failed the first requirement.

War must be a last resort. All other methods for achieving peace must be exhausted. The UN attempted to disarm him for over a decade. I don’t care if the chemical weapons we found were from the Iran/Iraq war, they’re still banned weapons. He was forbidden by the international community from having them, he used them on Iranian soldiers and his own people and he thumbed his nose at international law for many years. I believe the second requirement is in our favor although I’m sure others would disagree. Once again the terrorists fail the test.

There must be serious prospects of success. There is no question the US military is up to the task. Not much more can be debated. We have the most technically advanced weapons systems, best trained, equipped and conditioned personnel and they are all volunteers which makes them highly motivated.

Unfortunately because of the lack of political will of our present leadership, although we have the capability to win in Iraq, victory is by no means certain. In the case of the terrorists, the converse is true. They are more motivated than ever, yet they live in caves or mud huts and fire homemade rockets and use human bombs. We have radar and stealth and aircraft carriers, yet we’re essentially in a stalemate. Everywhere we’ve engaged them.

The act of waging war must not produce evils which are greater that the evil you are trying to eliminate. In that regard is where this war fails the test.

In Iraq, thousands of innocents have been killed in the most horrible ways imaginable. Shot, fragged, blown to bits, throats slit, heads sawed off. The war itself may have been morally justified - had the country been invaded on a large-scale, and the land cleared and then held with reinforcements.

The failure of Bush to not squash the terror campaign immediately is what led to his complete loss of moral legitimacy on the issue of Iraq. At this point, it matters not how evil the terrorists are. If we’re not killing them and our very presence is causing more pain than existed prior to our arrival (which it is) that is against God’s law.

Even if George Bush thinks he’ s justified.

This war started out as just but turned stinky real fast. On June 18th, I wrote that nothing had changed, and probably wouldn’t. Well, it’s now August and it hasn’t. And it won’t.

Another requirement of the just war is that the weaponry used discriminate between enemy and noncombatant. GPS and laser-guided bombs certainly meet this requirement, when used with accurate intelligence. Muslim terrorists constantly violate this tenet and have been doing so since terrorism was brought into the forefront.

It is against God’s law to deliberately target noncombatants. By the same token civilian deaths that are unavoidable and come only after taking great pains to avoid them are regrettable, yet justified, if all of the other requirements are met and maintained. Therefore, taking this to it’s logical conclusion one could infer that the responsibility for the deaths in Iraq is al Qaeda’s. In Lebanon it is Hezbollah’s.

A just war can only be waged by a legitimate authority. The President of the United States is(arguably) a legitimate authority. As is Tony Blair, even Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden or any other group operating inside of a terrorist-harboring country is not. Hezbollah is not. Hamas is not (yet), and hopefully will never be.

Revenge itself is no justification for a war. The war must be fought to redress a wrong suffered, to eject an enemy, in self-defense or as a preemptive measure to prevent an enemy from attacking when intelligence shows an attack is likely, either by conventional means, or by WMD.

The blame is to be shared by Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Gen. George Casey, General John Abizaid and Gen. Peter Pace. This week, comes the admission by Abizaid and Pace that “sectarian violence” -code for civil war- is on the rise. Stunning that they were unable to envision what the American public has known for two years.

In addition, untold thousands of Shiites are now protesting in the street against the US and Israel and in support of Lebanese Hezbollah. Bush had no clue what might happen when he let the genie out of the bottle. He just doesn’t understand the Muslim psyche or the religious and ethnic rivalries that have gone on for thousands of years. If you look at a map of the Middle East, you’ll see over 100,000 US troops in Iraq on the verge of war with Shiites, along with Shiites in Lebanon on one side and Shiites in Iran with nuclear weapons programs on the other.

Incidentally, it was the Shiites that we liberated from Saddam Hussein. What a monumental screw-up.