Normally the month of March has a special significance for persons of Irish descent wherever they may live throughout the world. March 17, the feast day of Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, is celebrated with pride, with parades, with church celebrations. It is a day of merriment, of nostalgia, of remembrance, a day of Irish wit, humour, music, song, and dance. It is predictable….But not this year.

On March 17 of 2003 will there be war? Will there be peace?

In the Middle East, the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the threat of war has been growing daily. National governments are divided. Miraculously their peoples are not. Millions have demonstrated their opposition to war in peace marches held in towns, cities, and capitals throughout the world.

Not for the first time individuals are asking when is a war just? Is a war just when one country seeks to impose its will on another by military force when other means exist to resolve conflicts? It certainly was not a just war when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia Then the League of Nations turned a blind eye, and soon ceased to exist as an international forum.

More than two generations later the United Nations Organization is seized of a similar situation. Will it sanction the invasion of Iraq by the military might of the United States?

For the benefit of any who have never read it, the Canadian Vindicator reprints the introductory declaration of the Charter of the United Nations:

WE THE PEOPLES
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
DETERMINED

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

AND FOR THESE ENDS

to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and

to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and

to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed forces shall not be used save in the common interest, and

to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

HAVE RESOLVED TO
COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO
ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS.

Having read the above Declaration, readers may find in it reason to make their own individual judgments on the present world situation.

Saint Patrick, intercede for all of us on this your special day.

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