Editorials
CONTENTS Volume CXVIII, Number 1 Correspondence 2 Editorials 3 What Maggie hath wrought: E. J. Dionne, Jr. 5 Traveling lite: David R. Carlin, Jr. 7 Mending Catholic manners: Abigail...
...New York, N.Y...
...We are not imagining the notoriously elusive "surgical" strikes, but between that militm-y will-o'-the-wisp and either carpet bombing or frontal land assault, there are military options that cannot be discounted...
...Staff: Harriette Balsky, Elizabeth Ann Fisco, Pamela Quatse Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher: Edward S. Skillin Commonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly, except monthly Chrismaas, New Year's and July and August, by Commonweal Foundation, 15 Dutch St., New York, N.Y...
...Gulf policy, root and branch...
...Many reflexively view the projection of American power as an act of imperialism whether under the banner of Pax Americana or "world policeman...
...cluded that a just war could not be waged against Saddam Hussein...
...COMMONWEALI Patience and r e s o l v e o war---or n o t - - i n the Gulf...
...and how...
...They define the Gulf crisis as an Arab problem to be solved by Arabs, and they urge a virtually total withdrawal of American forces...
...that the third world and hard-pressed Central European nations could be assured of stable oil prices...
...But the question of proportionality between the likely good to be achieved and the evil wrought remains a difficult one...
...on the strengthening of UN peacekeeping forces and procedures...
...A failure of American military power in the Gulf would not be a step on the road to peace...
...those opposing U.S...
...Like notions of a preponderance of evidence or proof beyond reasonable doubt, this is a down-to-earth requirement...
...As it happens, despite the swift pace of events since August, this is a rare moment in which the criteria for a just war--most often considered after the fact, by detached academics rather than engaged citizens or their servants in office---can be studied as guides to policy...
...and those counseling continued military pressure, including a credible threat to resort to armed force if necessary, combined with reliance on economic sanctions as still the best way to achieve the goals set forth by the United Nations...
...War is hellish, its results unpredictable, its destructiveness in our time beyond imagining...
...Among these are veterans of recent antiwar campaigns who frame their reaction to this nation's Gulf policy in the same terms by which they opposed U.S...
...That does not mean they accept the possibility of any and every war...
...interventions in Central America and the Caribbean...
...Would Israel enter the war...
...POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Commonweal, 15 Dutch St...
...No matter how repressive the Iraqi regime may be, it can't overmatch the air and naval power that enforces the embargo...
...on arms sales...
...Though there are many unknowns, though there are uncertainties about strategy and tactics, we cannot agree with those who have quickly con"'Why am I always the one to make the sacrifices in this house...
...on the contrary, it would more likely guarantee the continued rule of violence there and elsewhere...
...pullout would hardly guarantee peace in the region...
...There is sufficient cause: forceful absorption of a sovereign nation and its people by an aggressor who, spurning (thus far) UN resolutions and the global consensus they represent, evades efforts to negotiate a peaceful resolution and reveals himself as a menace that can only grow with his increasing possession of chemical, biological, and nuclear weaponry...
...No war can be considered just that is not declared by a legitimate authority...
...The uncertainties are great but the stakes are high...
...A U.S...
...And it is hard to imagine that a success by Saddam Hussein will make either Israelis or Palestinians more amenable to a settlement...
...20 Inculturation & the gospel: Eugene Hillman 21 BOOKS The Content of Our Character: Don Wycliff 23 Lies of Silence: Crystal Gromer 24 Beyond Nationalism: Ivan Sanders 25 STAFF Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Associate Editor: Paul Baumann Production Editor: Patricia Mazzola Senior Writer: Robert G. Hoyt Intern: Alex Santora Movies: Richard Alleva Stage: Gerald Weales Poetry: Rosemary Deen Columnists: John Garvey, J. Bryan Hehir, Abigail McCarthy, David R. Carlin, Jr...
...Telephone: (212) 732-0800...
...9 Divided, we stand.., still: Fred Siegel 12 The ordinariness of God: Daniel J. O'Hanlon 14 Stage: Gerald Weales 17 Screen: Richard Alleva 18 Media: Frank McConnell 19 Poetry: John Nixon, Jr...
...Would we end up trading the tyrant of Baghdad for the tyrant of Damascus...
...Neither would a failure of diplomatic nerve or confidence in ourselves and like-minded nations to use a powerful economic weapon like the embargo...
...04106 (207) 7994387, classified advertising correspondence to 15 Dutch St...
...Against these hard-to-calculate risks must be weighed several hard-tocalculate possibilities: that a successful example of international cooperation against aggression could set a powerful precedent for the post-cold-war era...
...10038...
...It would further isolate I s r a e l - - a consequence its leaders sometimes appear perversely to desire but which its people do not deserve...
...But why must a rush to war be the alternative to withdrawal...
...10038...
...4: Commonweal...
...on an international conference to help stabilize the Middle East...
...For some, the choice between George Bush and Saddam Hussein is a tough call...
...Not wanting to legitimate war, we squirm and we fudge but finally cannot avoid the truth that at least sometimes the threat of it can forestall the reality...
...But Americans can rightfully demand that the president obtain some further authorization from Congress if not a full-scale declaration of war before ordering any major military action...
...To support this opposition to America's Gulf presence, its representatives have appropriated a number of legitimate issues: this country's continued reliance on Gulf oil, its role in aiding the growth of Iraq's military power, its decades-long failure to achieve a balanced U.S...
...The world has everything to gain, and Saddam Hussein much to lose, in giving the sanctions more time to work...
...And it would represent a setback for the United Nations and collective peacemaking in a post-cold war world...
...Why must the deadline for Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait also set the deadline for war...
...If no, what is to be done instead...
...Most are not pacifists nor members of the historic pacifist churches, but they feel a bad conscience about whatever in their own theological traditions holds that armed force can sometimes be the moral choice, and they are psychologically resistant to any positive evaluation of the use of armed force...
...It can't turn its edicts into spare parts for tanks, planes, trucks, or cars, ammunition for target practice, money for oil not sold...
...In fact, opinion falls not into two but three broad camps: those advocating quick, decisive action if January 15 passes without an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait...
...Many people would consider the United Nations to constitute one...
...As the UN deadline approaches, debate appears to seesaw between a headlong rush to war and a growing opposition to any major American presence in the Gulf...
...Just means to match a just cause are available: targeting technologies could limit air and naval bombardments to military targets and minimize attacks against civilians...
...that down the road, an international conference could deal with other outstanding Middle East issues...
...pullout would not bring democracy or greater social justice to Kuwait or Saudi Arabia...
...The point is that they may spare far more than, in the long run, will a policy of capitulation...
...7 Mending Catholic manners: Abigail McCarthy 8 The 'Karate Kid' meets the Shining Path: Tom Vogel, Jr...
...To transmute it into theoretical speculation about the one more attempt that can always be made reduces it to a debating point...
...If yes, when...
...Much in American economic and international policy demands correction and new initiatives (on energy, for example...
...In the present state of international relations, the war option is needed to make the sanctions option credible...
...Would our other Arab allies be destabilized during a war by the divided sentiments of their own peoples...
...Why does the White House so insistently repeat the self-fulfilling prophecy that we and our allies lack the patience to sustain an embargo, when this embargo already appears to be the most comprehensive and widely observed in history...
...The idea that sanctions or diplomacy unsupported by military pressure can achieve peace in the Gulf is a fantasy calculated to salve uneasy consciences...
...But these are not grounds for withdrawal...
...They will not spare significant numbers of people, civilians and soldiers, from death or life-altering trauma...
...Would Iraq occupy Jordan and then (or simultaneously) attack Israel...
...Finally war can be waged only as a last resort...
...Would Syria then switch sides...
...If war comes, then, isn't October better than January, not to forget, of course, that never is better than October...
...That counsels caution, patience, and firmness, not rashness or withdrawal...
...Others, less denunciatory, nevertheless oppose our government's support for the Kuwaiti and Saudi monarchies...
...And there are contingencies difficult to predict...
...Catholic bishops) and many religious activists (including quite a few Catholics...
...A U.S...
...In the fog of battle, especially for a multinational, multicultural force without shared rules of engagement confronting a ruthless~ enemy, observance of limits and restraints on tactics would be difficult...
...If we think the Security Council was right to go beyond condemnation and an economic embargo and to authorize the use of military force as a possible option, it is because we think this can reduce Baghdad's temptation to test sanctions to the bitter end in hopes of outlasting its adversaries' unity or willpower...
...At this juncture in the Persian Gulf crisis, when sanctions and negotiations backed with threats of military action (and perhaps eventually with the use of force) still have not been played out, we have not reached the point of last resort...
...Portland, Me...
...Display advertising correspondence should be sent to Ruth E. Taylor, 11 Graffam Rd., So...
...Those who (like Commonweal) urge reliance on sanctions must acknowledge that they accept the possibility of war...
...It would not assure the 11 January 1991:3 flow of oil, now so critical to the economies of Central Europe's fledgling democracies and so many nations in the developed and developing worlds...
...Among the no-sayers--a small but growing number of Americans--are the leaders of several Christian denominations (although not the U.S...
...policy in the Middle East...
Vol. 118 • January 1991 • No. 1
