A “preventive war” against Iraq “would have unacceptable human costs and very serious destabilizing effects on the whole Middle-Eastern area, and probably on international relations as a whole”: only “the weapon of dissuasion”, exercised by UNO, may represent “an alternative able to guarantee security and peace”, a year after the tragedy of 11 September 2001. Opening the permanent Council of Italian bishops on 16 September, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), spoke of the “international emergencies”, first and foremost the USA-Iraq crisis, expressing his concern about what he called the “very dangerous divergence”, in relations between the United States and Europe, “on the way of guaranteeing security and combating terrorism”. The president of the CEI also warned of the danger of “a form of inurement” to the Arab-Israeli conflict; he said that its “acute and particularly ferocious phase” has become chronic, with the risk of “underestimating the devastating effects of this conflict”. As regards Italian domestic politics, Ruini urged that the “spiral” of mutual recrimination in which Italian politics seems to be caught up, due to the “continuous conflict between ruling majority and opposition”, be overcome.
