To the editor:

Jim Wallis in his recent book, “God’s Politics,” states that most of the world’s Christian churches – Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical and Pentecostal – were united in opposing war with Iraq. Sadly, neither President Bush nor Prime Minister Blair took their Christian advice.

Pre-emptive war is forbidden by Christian ethics and by international law. Bush falsely claimed that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction” and deceived Congress into giving him permission to go to war. Continuing United Nations inspections within Iraq could have avoided the present disaster.

Immoral American actions followed. In 2004, heavy American bombing and street fighting in the city of Fallujah killed more than 1,400 Iraqi civilians and wounded hundreds more. Also in 2004, war crimes of torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers were photographed. In more than four years, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, wounded or made homeless. The American occupation of Iraq has been a crime against humanity.

Bad as he was, Saddam Hussein did not tolerate terrorist al-Qaida, but now Iraq has become a terrorist recruiting ground. The United States should transfer the occupation of Iraq to the United Nations. U.N. troops, including many from Muslim nations, should occupy Iraq. If necessary, the United Nations should partition Iraq into separate Shiite, Sunni and Kurd countries. Being at fault, the United States should pay for much of the cost of the U.N. occupation of Iraq.

John A. Bond,

Lawrence