God's grace, I fear, has nothing to do with. Indeed, "grace" from any source doesn't

come immediately to mind when one considers the totally irresponsible and colossally selfish activities of the so-called Christian Peacemaker Teams.

We are told that the northern Ontario city of Sault Ste. Marie was suddenly blazoned with red ribbons tied to trees upon weekend news that local James Loney one is tempted to add an extra "0" returned to Canada after four months of captivity by the sort of crackpot terrorists in Iraq which Loney's group has, either purposely or naively, given succor to.

Stalin, you'll recall, had his "useful idiots," those leftist nincompoops in the western countries who denied the brutal reality of his regime in their haste to condemn western countries as the source of all evil.

So too have our friends at CPT provided aid and comfort to those who think nothing of murdering innocent men, women and children in their misguided and hateful zeal to restore the power they enjoyed under the heinous regime of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.

The CPT, you may wish to know, rushed over to defend Hussein in the first Gulf War, but was nowhere to be seen in the intervening years while he was ridding his country of hundreds of thousands of people whose crime was they did not belong to his tribe or his political party.

Sure enough, however, once it appeared western countries may go after Hussein again, the CPT rushed to Baghdad, where they were feted as heroes for their decision to act as human shields against a possible attack.

Then, last November, against the sound advice of their own government and everybody else with any common sense, Loney and his fellow travelers rushed off to Baghdad clearly on the side of the insurgents and found themselves kidnapped by a previously unknown group of thugs calling themselves the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, their idea of righteousness apparently being as one-sided, and twisted, as the CPT's idea of promoting fairness and balance in their anti-western world view.

Loney, unlike the CPT leader who chastised the rescuers even after they risked their lives to save the hostages at least was gracious enough to thank those who saved him and his fellow hostages Harmeet Singh Sooden, a Canadian, and Norman Kember, a British citizen.

The fourth hostage, American Tom Fox, was murdered earlier this month, his body tossed into an Iraqi garbage dump.

In the intervening months, scores of Western officials which included nearly two dozen Canadian police, soldiers, spies and diplomats who had flown to Baghdad for the effort worked round the clock to track down the hostages and, in the end, free them. (The CPT's initial reaction, by the way, was to applaud the "release" of the hostages, as if the terrorists had suddenly had a change of heart and let them go. Please.)

While it goes without saying that it is a good thing that three of the hostages are alive and well and it would have been better had all four been rescued the fact remains that these people deliberately ignored warnings from their own governments and everybody else and put themselves in harms way to demonstrate their commitment to oppose what they call the "illegal" war in Iraq.

Funny, we don't hear them protesting the murderous activities of the Iraqi terrorists who continue to blow up mosques, homes, schools, hospitals, you name it, whatever and wherever they can spread fear and loathing to their pal Hussein was dictator.

Instead, judging by their track record at least, the CPT seems to have a deeply held anti-Western bent in general, and antiAmerican in particular, when it comes to their notion of spreading peace and love.

After the rescue, Father George LaPierre, who taught Loney at St. Mary's College, was quoted by the media as saying, "Our God hears us when we call...Our God answers our prayers."

With all due respect, it wasn't God who rescued these idiots from their own folly; it was a dedicated team of hard-working officials, including brave soldiers, who, despite the CPT's tendency to spit on their efforts, rescued them.

If the CPT really wants to study appropriate Christian actions, they might want to look to the brave band of British soldiers who risked their own lives to sweep in for the rescue.

In the meantime, one suspects many Canadians this one included wouldn't be offended if Prime Minister Stephen Harper sent Loney and his compatriots the bill for this totally unnecessary operation.