Moore challenges Bishop on Iraq, Alexander challenges McCain on Iran

The Brian Moore/Stewart Alexander presidential campaign, nominated by the Socialist Party USA and Liberty Union Party (and seeking the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party) released two statements this week, each focusing on current attitudes towards Middle East policy.

Brian Moore penned the first statement on Memorial Day, in which he challenges Bishop Robert Lynch, of St. Petersburg, Florida, on his experience while attending a Sunday mass:

Moore attended 11 AM Memorial Weekend mass on Sunday, May 25th, at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in his hometown of Spring Hill, Florida, only to hear the parish deacon read off Memorial Day prayers of the faithful “for [just] American soldiers serving the cause of peace in Iraq.”

Moore wrote to the Bishop on Monday, Memorial Day, that “no mention was made of the innocent Iraqi civilian deaths,” estimated by various groups of between 250,000 to over one million dead. The presidential candidate further criticized the Florida diocese because its various parish Sunday masses conclude with patriotic and nationalist secular songs.

Moore, who identifies himself as a practicing Catholic in the statement, makes clear that his concern lies with the American church’s leadership on the matter:

Moore acknowledges that the Roman Catholic Pope and the American Catholic Bishops, especially in 2002 and 2003, spoke out strongly against the United States of America conducting a pre-emptive strike on Iraq and going to war, especially when there was no imminent threat to America’s national security. However, despite several other references to the church’s concern for torture and America’s ongoing war, American Catholic leaders “have remained relatively quiet,” and their local parishes have either “said nothing,” or, in Moore’s reference to the Memorial Day service at his parish church, they have “excluded or made minimal reference to the many innocent civilian victims,” and have “promoted patriotism and nationalism to a fault!,” he said.

Meanwhile, Stewart Alexander, vice-presidential nominee and a registered member of the Peace and Freedom Party, had some harsh words for John McCain over his recent exchange with Barack Obama:

Senator McCain recently directed a barrage of negative comments against Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic Party presidential frontrunner. According to the Associated Press, Senator Obama had stated, “Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.” Senator McCain responded to Obama’s statement saying “Such a statement betrays the depth of Senator Obama’s inexperience and reckless judgment.” Alexander says “It is amazing that the fellow who chanted ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran even knows the word ‘reckless.’ But he apparently doesn’t know its meaning, as it could best be applied to him of all the candidates.”

Alexander doesn’t let Obama off the hook either, nor does he shy away from tying in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

Socialists are opposed to the domestic and foreign policies of both John McCain and Barack Obama because the two presidential contenders have expressed a clear determination to expand U.S. imperialism based upon more human sacrifice. The greatest sacrifice has been the 1.2 million Iraqis that are now dead as a result of the war, more than 4,000 U.S. dead, the tens of thousands of U.S. veterans that have been injured and emotionally scared, the 4.2 million Iraqis that are now living as refugees, and a U.S. economy that is crumbling under the escalating cost of the war.

The continuing war in Afghanistan, that has also claimed so many dead and wounded, has been revealed now as an attempt to prop up an utterly corrupt coalition of warlords, some of whom treat women and workers even worse than did the Taliban.