Pray for Syria?

Pope Francis has asked us -- Catholics and non-Catholics alike [What about the atheists? Ed.] -- to pray on Saturday for an end to the war in Syria. That's the flavour of the month, it seems. There will be talk of little else behind the scenes at the G20 summit, which by happenstance is about to get under way in Moscow.

Amongst the world "leaders" present at the G20 will be Hussein Obama, the alleged president of the US of A. Perhaps we should pray that the Prez will be unwilling or unable to make good on his sabre-rattling, or airstrike-rattling if you will. He has just been authorized so to do by a vote of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But that won't mean anything if the full Senate votes otherwise next week. And then there's the House. Don't hold your breath waiting for anything to happen.

But even if America hits Assad hard, as this week's Economist recommends, will that end the civil war? Does peace come out of the barrel of a gun or a rocket launcher? Did intervention work in Iraq? In Afghanistan? In Libya? The Pope's day (or moment) of prayer might prove more efficacious... not that I'd bet on it.

[Ed. here. Len is not a betting man, but I am. In addition to praying for peace in Syria, I'm going to pray that I hit the trifecta three races in a row. I figure that prayer has a better chance of being answered.]

OK, that's quite enough. Let's not make light of this. According to the UN, 2 million refugees have been displaced by the war in Syria. 1000s of innocent people have died. It won't hurt for us to pray for peace, and it might help.

Mind you, it would help even more if the Pope would do what Our Lady of Fatima requested, and consecrate Russia (by name) to Her Immaculate Heart. After all, there are those, including Obama, who see Russia as the stumbling block to making peace in the Middle East. Perhaps the Consecration of Russia really is Heaven's key to peace, as the "Fatimists" keep telling us.

And it's not just Syria that stands in the need of prayer. Spare a thought for the Central African Republic. "Wat's dat?", I hear you ask. Behold the map.

It's a dungheap, not long ago called the Central African "Empire", more or less in the middle of Africa, just north of the Heart of Darkness that is the Congo.

There's a civil war going on there too. A million refugees are fleeing into the neighbouring dungheaps or other parts of their own country, running from mostly Muslim insurgents who are looting, pillaging and raping as they descend on the more-or-less Christian south.

The war in the CAR has been little noted and less discussed or prayed about. French Président François Hollande said the country is facing "Somalisation", by which he means it is becoming yet another African failed state.

But are the French about to intervene? Non! They just got through cleaning up a similar mess in Mali and have had enough of the Dark Continent. They would rather bask in the reflected glory that will accrue to the USA when Assad is toppled and peace returns to Syria. Just as happened when Gaddafi was toppled and peace and democracy were restored in Libya.

Well... Len is certainly not going to be the one to disparage the Pope's call for prayers for peace. The Holy Father's intentions are good, I'm sure. The intentions of Messrs Obama, Putin and the rest are another matter. God only knows.