CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

Figure 2-3: Respect Part Campaign Card
It is not just political standing and authority that can be undermined. Senior members
of both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church in Britain expressed
doubts about the morality of the war. In a joint statement shortly before commencement
of military action, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Westminster noted that ‘doubts still persist about the moral legitimacy as well as the
unpredictable humanitarian consequences of a war with Iraq.’ 185 Analogous to the
points made in the previous section about moral leadership at the international level,
lack of clear justification for war undermines a government’s moral authority at home.
In September 2004 the Bishop of St Edmundsbury, the Rt Rev Richard Lewis, went
further than previous Church statements in directly criticising the Prime Minister,
saying it was no longer possible to trust him: ‘Mr Blair’s moral authority has been
tainted and his leadership has certainly been damaged. There must certainly be
questions about his judgement or about his integrity.’ 186 At the same time the extent of
the public’s concern over the Prime Minister’s integrity was reflected in a YouGov poll
that showed 48% of the public had no trust in Mr Blair personally, and 90% believing
issues surrounding the Iraq war had done some political damage to him. 187
Perhaps unsurprisingly the war with Iraq was much less controversial in the United
States, not least as – despite an absence of any significant evidence – it continued to be
viewed in the public consciousness as inextricably linked with the War on Terror, and
retaliation for the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. However, even in the US the
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