Editorials
CONTENTS Volume CXVIH, Number 7 Correspondence 210 Editorials 211 Shakespeare's embrace: David R. Carlin, Jr. 214 A sacred place...still: Abigail McCarthy 215 Father, I'm...
...Then, a just war ended in employing disproportionate means, the fire-bombing of Dresden for one, and the use of atomic weapons for another...
...But if the private economy cannot provide jobs for the unskilled, government, at either the state or federal level, should...
...This is dismal news...
...Yet many human lives were lost before the U.S...
...Its blacks and Hispanics in the U.S...
...The redistribution of power and economic oppor- tunity that democratic politics once accomplished through the patronage system is much more problematic when written into law...
...The problems before us may be different, but the key to solving them remains the same," Bush recited the mantra...
...Abroad the vocabulary of virtue is flaunted shamelessly...
...It should be clear that the path of progress no longer leads through the courts...
...Intra-Arab and intra-Islamic hatreds remain, if they have not been exacerbated...
...Anti- mony made straight the way for political they might throw themselves into the arms Eurocentrism is an essentially negative hegemony...
...214 A sacred place...still: Abigail McCarthy 215 Father, I'm pregnant: Julia Ann Upton 217 The 'just war' war: Francis X. Winters 220 Teaching history at high noon: Thomas Leckey 223 Poetry: Leonard A. Temme Mary Rudbeck Stanko 224 227 Screen: Richard Alleva 226 Stage: Gerald Weales 228 BOOKS Gratitude: Francis Flaherty 230 Catholic Higher Education, Theology, and Academic Freedom: Raymond A. Schroth 231 Beyond the Boom: Daniel M. Murtaugh 234 STAFF Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Associate Editor: Paul Baumann Production Editor: Patricia Mazzola Assoc...
...CONTENTS Volume CXVIH, Number 7 Correspondence 210 Editorials 211 Shakespeare's embrace: David R. Carlin, Jr...
...Indeed, it must root out the self- destructive behavior such anger encourages...
...Where is the "fit" between these people and acquiescence in national policy...
...is not overtly sup- porting his opponents, either the Shiites sympathetic to Iran in the south or the Kurds eager for autonomy in the north...
...we mean Africans and own tradition while helping us to deal better expansion European claims of cultural Native Americans whose forebears in with contemporaries who are heirs to those superiority have served to delegitimize recent centuries fell victim to Spanish lin- alternative cultural heritages...
...Like Steele, Brooks warns that the black community cannot dwell on its anger, no matter how legitimate its grievances...
...REVERTING TO FORM The dust settles, the uncounted dead are buried, the oil wells continue to burn, and a permanent cease fire with Iraq remains to be signed...
...But that need not be the case...
...The U.S...
...yg&'&'~_'j Beyond racial politics ne of the more obvious and bitter ironies of President George Bush's JanuaryState of the Union message was its perfunctory discussion of domestic issues, especially its one-sentence nod to the nation's deepening racial divisions...
...The question arises because the administration is already backpedaling on the idea of curtailing conventional arms sales to Arab countries...
...Repelling Saddam Hussein's occupation of Kuwait and cur- tailing Iraqi power was a seeming political necessity and a plausible moral good...
...But it is hard to see how fueling another round of arms selling--with its quantum increase in lethality--serves the national purpose or the rule of law we fought to uphold...
...Consequently, the newly enfranchised black middle class must help poor and working-class blacks to help themselves...
...Commonweal,[ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly, except monthly Christmas, New Year's and July and August, by Commonweal Foundation, 15 Dutch St., New York, N.Y...
...If we prqve even one human life is tragic...
...Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell contended that a significant U.S...
...has better things to do with our expertise and industry--at home...
...And there are some who think it's perfectly sound but all too easily abused...
...door for the conquistador...
...actions were Rather than a tool for supporting the war, just-war theory not otherwise compelling, but this uncharacteristic flash of sol- seemed to me one that helped to limit it...
...their roots, enabling them to draw strength and richly deserve our care and attention...
...it seems, is one means that all citizens, religious or not, have The fit comes, I believe, when we begin to think of Kuwaiti available as such a measure as well as a goad to our consciences...
...military presence will be required in the Gulf for some unspecified period...
...A program like the Civilian Conservation Corps might be considered...
...Portland, Me...
...And when a moral calculus enters in, all the more do such efforts seem coldly to discount the frailty of the human body and the human psyche...
...Americans have been encouraged to draw the most simplistic moral and political conclusions about our military triumph over the "fourth largest army in the world...
...Roy L. Brooks, a black professor of law at the University of Minnesota, puts it bluntly: "African-Americans cannot wait to be rescued by the government" (Rethinking the American Race Problem, University of California...
...Perhaps I had not, as I feared, fallen into an intel- lectual juggernaut, propelling me to support of the war, a con- clusion that I hadn't been able to come to during Vietnam or our other military adventures thereafter, and frankly a conclusion I had never expected to come to again...
...THE GULF WAR I..IF, AI~ & 14EARTS AT ODDS MEASURING OUR ACQUIESCENCE hen our parish had a discussion of the Gulf war on February 3, one of the stalwarts reported himself, a habitual antiwar person, amazed at his support for the war...
...Despite its rhetoric of ecumeni- but for third-world individuals and groups rent crusade against cal understanding, of polycultural open- dwelling within the boundaries of the "Eurocentrism" has, I mindedness, its essential aim is to dethrone Western world, e.g., Algerians in France, suppose, certain merits...
...At first glance such realism may appear to undermine the idea of gov- ernment intervention...
...The nature of this renewal has been explored by the black writer Shelby Steele (The Content of Our Character, St...
...bodies and souls, and of the threat to other bodies and souls, of It makes us more suspect of the reasons our government goes Saudis, of Israelis, if Saddam Hussein had become the dominant to war and more critical about how that war is conducted...
...Everyone who is willing to work should be given an opportunity to do so...
...And yes, many Iraqi ones were lost and the appeal to them will have averted a disaster worse than when we finally did--but also Israeli and Saudi lives--and the one we now have before us...
...Equally crit- MARGARET O'BRIEN STEINFELS ical, many human lives would have been lost in Kuwait, and Margaret O'Brien Steinfels is the editor of Commonweal...
...Much remains unknown and unresolved...
...If European cultural THE VALUES OF EUROCENTRISM supremacy goes, can Western political supremacy be far behind...
...For Steele, much of the solution must now come from the African-American community itself...
...A retreat from rights-oriented politics and racial polemics and a return to coalition building is not just the better answer it may be the only hope...
...Just-war theory, paltry though just-war theory...
...Moreover, under the Reagan-appointed Supreme Court, civil rights statutes have been interpreted narrowly, making it harder to prove discrimination or implement affirmative action programs...
...The legal attack on segregation and discrimination has put in place powerful remedies for intentional discriminatory prac- tices...
...Private employers should be given supports and incentives to hire the unemployed...
...the high tradition of European culture...
...Even more surprising, he found, was his general approval of George Bush's actions, from sending troops to Saudi Arabia down to the air war itself...
...Bush's efforts to explain and justify U.S...
...American policy goals are largely unarticulated and suggest at each crucial turn an improvisational character...
...By "Hispanics," of course, we do will help us to see the shortcomings of our During several centuries of Western not mean Spaniards...
...In rallying the nation to war, Bush spoke idealistically of the rule of law and pragmatically of the legitimate interest America has in regional stability...
...POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Commonweal, 15 Dutch St...
...That is the difficult truth that awaits a persuasive political voice...
...the missionary opened the of Cervantes...
...This was our attitude toward repeating Saddam Hussein before his invasion of Kuwait sud- denly turned him into "Hitler...
...While encouraging Hussein's overthrow, the U.S...
...Like many people, he had hoped that the sanctions would work...
...But the stupidity of pouring the fuel of more arms on the smol- dering ruins of the Middle East seems as obvious as Hussein's own hubris...
...Such indi- For instance, it is good to purpose is to reduce European culture from viduals are invited to shrug offthe burden be reminded that the European cultural the status of primacy it has claimed for itself of Plato and Dante and Greta Garbo, there- world is not the only one that has ever exist- to a status of equality, where it will be no by freeing themselves to get in touch with ed...
...The seemingly intractable crisis facing the predominantly black urban underclass calls for a fundamental reevaluation of our assumptions about the conundrums of race...
...Both argue that the politics of civil rights as traditionally practiced cannot solve today's problems...
...It is the move from individual equality of opportunity to a more democratic equality of results and representation that stymies us now...
...More important, our long-term interests, as well as the long-term interests of the peoples of the Middle East, lie not in weapons' sales, but in the democratic political reform of the region's nations...
...214: Commonweal...
...Different times and different enemies require different strate- gies and tactics...
...Kuwait has been liberated, but its peoples and its government are in disarray and unex- pectedly hesitant about how to restore their country...
...Hope and aspiration, the most powerful engines of any economy, are in short supply for too many Americans...
...and will force us to acknowledge that...
...Brooks notes that the relative success of integration has tragically intensified the hopelessness of ghetto life...
...But Brooks recognizes that the success of legal and material assistance will depend on the ability of the black community to put it to good use...
...He is right...
...But while our military engagement with the Iraqis was short and quick, our entanglement in the region promises to be long, less clear-cut, and much less satisfactory...
...But the war is not over...
...Yet why, we also want to ask, isn't the sturdy good will of coalition politics suf- ficient to dissuade England, France, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and others from repeating the race to export arms...
...And neither is the political and moral assessment of the war...
...The recent incident captured on videotape of police brutality in Los Angeles has reminded us all of racism's continuing power...
...indeed, it is a far cry from World War II...
...Instrumental social policies--programs of income and housing support, job training, welfare reform, and child care, for example--will pro- vide the necessary material complement to the voluntaristic efforts of the black community itself...
...Thinking about the air assault on tries to draw moral limits and conditions can seem a shabby dug-in Iraqi troops, especially those who may have been dra- exercise in the face of the loss of even one human life...
...The destruction in both Kuwait and Iraq is immense, and the death tolls high...
...at home any corresponding call to sacrifice and justice is judged naive...
...On these grounds alone, there are people, friends of Commonweal and friends of mine, who think that the just-war theory has collapsed as a moral measure and simply become another political tool used to support war...
...Rearming our allies in the region, some say, is the best way to protect those interests...
...This response is a far the White House in December to protest the momentum toward cry from Vietnam...
...Yes, we have national interests in securing the flow of oil...
...None of us makes it on our own...
...Of course, this was nothing to be jubilant about...
...OF SEVERAL MINDS David R. Carlin, Jr...
...He promised that Operation Desert Storm would "not be another Vietnam...
...mr-.~ L Irg-*'wrAvA~_ I_lkl COMMONmI= m I I e l l i I~T.glmil~"~l...
...If he is not to prove himself simply mercenary--and if we are not to contribute to another cycle of violence in the Middle East--we should forgo the political and economic rewards of rearming our allies...
...that other cultural traditions are rich better than one culture among many...
...He calls for a turning away from legalistic solutions and a return to community action capable of developing interracial electoral majorities around nonracial concerns...
...Did the assault on withdrawing Iraqi troops exceed any properly military goal...
...Such a program must address the economic realities that are foreclosing oppommity for many...
...Staff: Harriette Balsky, Carmen Alava, Pamela Quatse Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher: Edward S. Skillin Commonweal welcomes letters on subjects treated in its pages...
...We should not have done those things...
...F-16s are on their way to Egypt, and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will soon be weighing in with arms requests of their own...
...As I sat listening, I saw my obsessive reflections and mental gymnastics being clarified in his straightforward and unadorned assessment...
...American, British, French, and Egyptian lives too...
...As we can see from the condition of our bridges and public spaces, there is plenty of work to be done...
...No society can afford to squander such resources...
...Equal opportunity is a social achievement, and government has an important role to play in promoting it...
...native cultures in the non-European world, guistic imperialism...
...Perhaps as the out- idarity with the Kuwaitis resonated with my own sense of where comes and consequences of the war are more fully exposed, the weight of the argument fell...
...George Bush displayed considerable technical and political acumen in waging war and sustaining the international coalition to support it, but does he have any idea of how to forge peace or stability in the region as a whole...
...But individuals do not step forward in a vacuum...
...Efforts to "justify" war always seem bloodless and hyper- rational...
...With fewer and fewer semi-skilled or manufacturing jobs available--and those at stagnant or decreasing real wages--getting on the road to upward mobility is more difficult than ever...
...If we have not, those criteria its allies ever fired a shot...
...But he was also deeply concerned about the Kuwaitis who remained in their country under Iraqi occupation...
...Letters should not exceed 250 words and are subject to editing for clar- ity and space limitations...
...Today's service- and information-based economy, with its increasing separation of the rich from the middle and working classes and its amnesia about the poor, offers less and less opportunity for the ill-educated...
...With this, as with many aspects of the Gulf war, World War II came to mind...
...America continues to find it easier to answer the call to "selfless" sacrifice on foreign shores and moral crusades in pursuit of a "new world order" than to face disorder and despair in our cities and among our most disadvantaged...
...But if you turn the tables, if you delegitimize the delegitimizers, then you advance the liberation SHAKESPEARE'S EMBRACE of the third world...
...Domestically, President Bush and his Republican allies are eager to exploit the political benefits military victory brings...
...The personal and social value of dignified employment, as much as the material reward, is what the disenfranchised need if they are to be integrated into American society...
...Brooks proposes a self-help program, where middle-class blacks work one-on-one with households in the inner cities, tutoring them in the funda- mentals of both social responsibility and the survival skills needed in a white culture...
...Moreover, this program of cultural-polit- ical liberation is intended not just for those people residing in third-world countries n its positive side the cur- movement...
...What was happening to them...
...If others do it, so be it...
...When we liberate these But to speak of the positive aspects of thus making those societies easy pickings poor souls from the forced embrace of anti-Eurocentrism is a bit like speaking of for Western imperialism...
...He thinks institutional racial barriers have been largely dismantled, and that the familiar rhetoric and psy- chology of victimization is now the greater enemy...
...Similarly, Sleeper criticizes the politics of racial grievance and confrontation...
...Brooks does not dismiss the importance of the political or legal struggle, nor does he minimize the hold racism still exerts on American society...
...Nor, after a cease fire, can we evade many questions: Did the bombing of Baghdad go beyond necessary means...
...April Glaspie, our former ambas- sador to Iraq, now says that Hussein fooled everyone--that no one thought he could be so "stupid" as to invade Kuwait...
...Martin's) as well as by white liberal activists such as Jim Sleeper (Closest of Strangers, Norton...
...International law has been upheld, but in Iraq, Hussein and the Baath party remain in power, at least for the moment...
...Were fuel- air bombs used not just over mine fields, but also against troops...
...We cannot 212: Commonweal abandon our Arab allies, we cannot leave a political "vac- uum," we cannot open the door for Iran...or Syria...or the Soviet Union, etc...
...For more than a decade the federal government has absented itself from much of the hard work of creating opportunity for the most needy, and absolved itself from moral responsibility in that area...
...Every loss is dispro- to have been wrong in warring against Iraq, just-war criteria portionate...
...Clearly, a higher standard of both vision and action in race relations is desperately needed...
...war theory that will help us Americans look more soberly at In his briefing of February 28, as a cease fire was being the immensity of our military power and think more critically arranged, General Norman Schwarzkopf said that the loss of about when and how that power should be used...
...Yet we were right to go to war against Hitler and we were wrong to have waited so long in resisting him...
...It is the individual--the individual who steps forward...
...Production Editor: Jacqueline Dowdell Senior Writer: Robert G. Hoyt Movies: Richard Alleva Stage: Gerald Weales Poetry: Rosemary Deen Columnists: John Garvey, J. Bryan Hehir, Abigail McCarthy, David R. Carlin, Jr...
...Abroad America boasts of galvanizing the "community" of nations...
...The majority of working- and middle-class Americans, both black and white, have more in common with one another than they do with the interests that have long divided them...
...10038...
...I regional power...
...New York, N.Y...
...And there is possibly more...
...Perhaps my surprise and that of my fellow parishioner lay in our applying the theory to the Gulf crisis and unexpectedly concluding that this war could be justified...
...There is, of course, a political agenda from their own collective and immemorial that to study those competing traditions lurking behind this cultural program...
...And it underestimates our actual power and influence in the region...
...Israel and the Palestinians are still locked in a mutually suffocating embrace...
...We were right as well to go to war against Saddam Hussein though it is probable that things were done that should not have been...
...Cultural hege- Shakespeare, it is certainly not in order that the constructive aspects of dynamite...
...Today, America's inner cities are in crisis, if not a free-fall, many of their African-American communities desolate...
...Any theory that trying to reassure each other...
...Telephone: (212) 732-0800...
...In other words, we cannot leave--at least not very soon...
...Given all that has happened, it is especially odd that the administration seems to be slipping toward repeating the manifest failure of its prewar policy of coddling oligarchies and dictators...
...An equitable distribution of wealth, a more balanced dispersion of power, and a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian question are the essential components to regional stability...
...President Bush adopted a high moral tone in moving the nation to war...
...But just cause and just means and if the means are found disproportionate, it will be just- are different things...
...But reality in the Middle East is less malleable than American public opinion...
...gooned into service, I thought about the numbing terror that For those who are not pacifists, as I am not, the use of force endless bombardment brings and its after-life in the dreams of and the turn to war require that we take some measure of our those who survive...
...Display advertising correspondence should be sent to Ruth E. Taylor, 11 Graffam Rd., So...
...But our racial stalemate will not be broken until the poor and the middle class reappropriate a shared civic culture...
...If we have upheld the principle of sovereignty and international law, we have also forcibly inserted ourselves into a part of the world we know too little about and seem to have little aptitude for understanding...
...Useful work is the best antidote to the cycles of depen- dency afflicting the underclass...
...This, of course, was the sound part of President was not sorry to see George Bush--inept though his treatment Bush's rejoinder to the challenge of Bishop Edmond Browning, was--turn to just-war theory or to hear military briefers voice presiding bishop of the Episcopal church, when Browning visited its prohibitions against civilian targets...
...Realizing true equal opportunity will require a much greater degree of economic and social equality of condition between the poor and the rest of us...
...Without the example and stability of middle-class families, the deterioration of the underclass may be irreversible...
...But with victory comes responsibility, or so we are now being told...
...Poverty, crime, violence, and drugs deprive millions of what is necessary for human dignity...
...souls...
...Watching the bombing of Baghdad on CNN, my imagination flew to the claustrophobic atmosphere 5 April 1991:213 of bomb shelters, of parents comforting terrified children and perhaps elsewhere, had we done nothing at all...
...If we don't supply the weapons, someone else will, comes the pragmatic answer of the administration...
...5 April 1991:211 Government is only half the equation, however...
...But that is not so much deeply cynical as woefully unimaginative, short-sighted, and ultimately futile...
...at home the word community is the dross left from the combustion of competing self-interests...
...10038...
...Blacks who have "made it" have taken their skills and resources out of the black community...
...04106 (207) 7994387, classified adver- tising correspondence to 15 Dutch St...
...His calculations--based on the view that the war began not on January 15 but August 2 with the invasion of Kuwait--roughly followed just-war principles and led him to support the war...
Vol. 118 • April 1991 • No. 7
