Also, General Zinni, who commanded central command, was very much opposed to the war in the first place, as I was. We were both quoted to that effect in February of 2003.
I remember serving in Vietnam in that war, and many of us at the major Lieutenant Colonel, colonel level were frustrated that no one in the U.S. wanted to debate it that way.
We've already seen proliferation. We started it with Britain, then France. Then we benignly let the Israelis do it. The Pakistanis and the Indians have recently done it. The Chinese have nuclear weapons.
Military officers from different countries, when they meet each other, tend to sort of fall in love, become mutual admiration societies, at the expense of realities.
To say that you now trust the Russian military command and control system because some Russian general told you from the bottom of his heart that's the case, strikes me as most unrealistic.
It is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer.
Plurality should not be posited without necessity.
I was never able to convince myself that there was a cost-free alternative course, as from 1961, or that any of the different strategies since proposed, especially those involving stronger military action, would have made sense.
We seek no wider war.
The more we can get together and talk about various perspectives, feelings, beliefs, the better.
The church may hold whatever it holds with regard to clerical celibacy.
I think we can work through a lot of these issues.
The hierarchy shouldn't fear what we're doing.
I would say the hierarchy has made terrible errors in judgment and it has to seek forgiveness by its members.
I am very confident that the Spirit is with us.
Others don't want to listen to viewpoints that members of the church have.
Individuals will speak their minds, which I think is healthy.
No organization, whether it's police or physicians or whatever, wants to have its errors held up to the light of day, but it's wrong, as is coming out so well.
What we're about is a manifestation of the Catholic roots of Boston College.
This is a crisis, but there is an opportunity to help revitalize and renew the Catholic community.
I would be with those who say the hierarchy in the United States has badly mishandled this whole situation.
You know how the church has been hit so hard by the sexual misconduct by clergy, and what's that's done to Catholics, especially here in Boston but elsewhere as well.
Now where people are - at least the people I talk to - they are focused on issues of trust. Accountability also comes up, to make sure that this doesn't happen again.
I think the issue of clergy sexual abuse sparked people to look at their faith in a different way.
The Spirit hasn't deserted the church today.
