Father Andrew Greeley never presents his credentials for commenting on the Iraq War, so I presume he has no special credibility in the matter. As he is not a bishop, we are obliged to listen respectfully, but his words do not spring from any charism of infallibility. His field of expertise is sociology, which might help him understand why societies make war, but is a rather inexact guide to practical statecraft.
Father Greeley's writing is not always devoid of charm or thoughtfulness, but it is here. You could spend days unpacking the ignorance:
One must support the troops, I am told. I certainly support the troops the best way possible: Bring them home, get them out of a war for which the planning was inadequate, the training nonexistent, the goal obscure, and the equipment and especially the armor for their vehicles inferior.You could answer each of those clauses with facts — that months of planning went into the invasion and postwar phases (we received endless briefings on those subjects before the war); that when you hear we have the "best-trained" military in history, it's not hyperbole, it's demonstrably true; and as I wrote here, armor plating isn't like a force field on the starship Enterprise.
But once Father has worked himself up into a lather, there's no stopping him. He accuses American officials of being "criminals" but doesn't get around to specifying the crimes, though to a left-wing audience I'm sure those crimes need no enumeration, they merely need to be asserted. You could try pointing out that "reasonable chance of victory" wasn't part of just war theory at the beginning, and that the theory is just that — an ideathat describes the right use of force, but is not de fide or beyond modification. But it's best to just let Father vent his spleen, and hope he takes a nap.
Now, Father might be right about the Iraq War and I may be wrong. It may well be unjust and immoral, although to the depth of my very soul I do not think Jesus looks unkindly on the liberation of the oppressed. But his (Greeley's, not Jesus') public life consists in authoring books with smutty elements, and running interference for pro-abortion liberal Democrats.
Occasionally, Father Greeley takes a stand for something the culture opposes, such as clerical celebacy. On balance, however, a fair observer could conclude that he has harmed the Body of Christ with his writings. Perhaps someone who knows him ought to say: "My friend, my fellow brother in Christ, you are a fool, and have no idea what you are talking about." Someone like Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz:
No Catholics of any sense will take any pastoral advice from Father Andrew Greeley, a superficial writer who appears to spend his time promoting himself to various elements in the secular media....In his self-important buffoonery, he has appointed himself as instructor to Bishops and to Catholics nationwide. In [writing an article defending pro-abortion Catholic politicians], he merely announces to every thoughtful Catholic that his views are totally self-serving and undeserving of any serious consideration....
My advice to any Catholics who would ask me about that Greeley article would be to give it the same view as you would the words and acts of a clown.
It is hard to know what to say. There are serious criticisms of Operation Iraqi Freedom - from the US Army War College (http://www.herbely.com/2004/12/is_the_bush_str.html#more). Greeley, however, seems to be more interested in tossing off smart sounding remarks than in offering any solutions. My own position is 1) that there was a just war case to be made - but the administration didn't do it; 2) The Bush doctrine of pre-emptive attack is hard to square with the just war criteria of last resort, particularly given our inadequate intelligence; and 3) the training and planning for the war was supurb, but the neo-cons in the administration overrode the Army brass about planning for post war operations. Eric, you are right: Greeley's statements are so snappy and judgmental that it is impossible to answer them.
when father greeley's on tv,
you should know better than to listen
it's all about himself, you see
and the attention that he's missin'
[...]
and when he shows up in the news
let the faithful treat his views
like the acts of a clown
he's just foolin' around
oh, yeah, baby
The ultimate Greely experience for me took place during the broohaha over the Passion. Greely appeared on Chris Matthews' very lowbrow MSNBC trash talkshow to discuss THE PASSION with other anti-catholic catholics.....Greely showed his tremendous arrogance , ignorance, and intellectual dishonesty by complaining about the lack of forgiveness in the film esp. the omission of the forgiveness line from the Crucifixion itself....which revealed to the whole world that Father Greely hadn't even seen the film!! Later on ewtn jim caviezel charitably made the same observation of Greely's perfomance on the show....you might as well go to the circus!
I got to know Fr. Andy Greely over 40 years ago when he was newly ordained and a curate at Christ the King Parish on Chicago's southwest side. He was unknown back then, still working on his PhD at the University of Chicago. He was actually kind of conservative back then. In 1962 I was newly graduated from college and looking for my first "real" job. I received an offer from one of our government's better known intelligence agencies, and asked Fr. Greeley what he thought. He not only encouraged me, but tied the opportunity, as I had, to Jack Kennedy's "...ask what you can do for your country." The Andrew Moran Greely of today is obviously not the Andrew Moran Greely of 40+ years ago