Correspondence The war
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors Onward Christian soldiers? Your April 9 editorial ["Stick to Your Guns"] suggests that NATO should carry on. Have we not seen enough destruction and bloodshed? It...
...7. Proportionality of means: To judge by the precedents set in our war with Iraq, where U.S...
...Strangely, our mis-leaders change our objective by the day...
...To involve ourselves in such a war is to enter a morass from which we can never extricate ourselves...
...Has Milosevic won...
...We are making NATO look foolish...
...Should your first noun about Slobodan Milosevic really be "arrogance...
...peter j. riga Houston, Tex...
...NATO and the United States should not "stick to their chosen course of action...
...His invariable reply: "Semantics are important...
...it results from a unilateral decision by the president...
...Apparently you believe in bombing a nation into compliance...
...An immoral war In contrast to the stand taken by Commonweal, I find NATO's actions in Kosovo, as measured by just-war criteria, to be purposeless, immoral, and disproportionate...
...Drop your guns Your editorial of April 9 is bad advice...
...bishops' Ex corde ecdesiae implementation committee, will appear in the May 21 issue...
...HANSULI GERBER Tmmelan, Switzerland The writer is with the Mennonite Central Committee for Europe...
...Doing nothing militarily is a viable moral option...
...Your editorial "Stick to Your Guns," misses one major point: Might Slobodan Milosevic already have met his nationalist goal of removing ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and gained a negotiating stick against NATO...
...How about "mendacity," "butchery," or "genocide...
...it reminds me of the days in my Master's program at Boston College...
...Do you feel the Serbs could be bombed into democracy...
...MARY C. and E. THOMAS MCCARTHY Berkeley, Calif...
...ALEX MIKULICH Chicago, III...
...6. Proportionality of goals: What are they...
...1. Just cause: This is a civil war and a religious-tribal war that has been going on for centuries...
...is going to offset the massive damage being done by our bombing campaign, which will be magnified if we follow the misguided recommendations of some (not you) to introduce ground troops and to arm the KLA...
...The bombs have given Serbian militia the excuse to drive people out, and have united behind Milosevic a people who have every reason to wish him out of government...
...4. Last resort: The matter was never seriously discussed in Congress or referred to the UN...
...We must "win," but nobody can tell us what that means...
...The logic of war has seduced too many, and if the Christian response has no better way to suggest, then the stones will have to cry out and there will be no end to war...
...We are trashing the economies and political stability in the whole of the Balkans, not to mention our relationship with Russia...
...planes bombed such targets as hydroelectric power plants and water purification facilities, leading to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, especially among children and the elderly, I have no confidence in the willingness of American forces to reject the use of disproportionate or otherwise illicit methods of warfare...
...We urge that the bombing campaign be stopped, that we cut our losses, and start providing real help to the Kosovar refugees...
...No benefit that the Kosovars might possibly receive from our intervention, and it is minimal to nonexistent so far, In the mail ¦ Letters written in response to Commonweal's special April 9 issue, "Keeping Colleges Catholic," including one from Bishop John J. Leibrecht, chairman of the U.S...
...There seems to be no truly just solution short of returning people to a secure Kosovar homeland...
...Perhaps, as that last noun becomes more obvious, you might also be wide of the mark to call NATO's unanimity (Continued on page 28) Commonweal 4 May 7,1999...
...5. Probability of success: Since we don't know the objectives of this war, how can we judge...
...Professor John Heineman, the most magnificent lecturer I have ever known, would correct my papers on Central Europe, and I would say: "That's just semantics...
...Semantic shortfalls Your editorial evokes my own soulsearching over these issues...
...I would expect a faith-based magazine like Commonweal to show some creativity in imagining alternatives to violence...
...planes are attacking a nation which has not threatened us at all...
...3. Right intention...
...In your very well-written editorial, there are some semantic problems...
...We are misusing our well-trained and dedicated military by ordering them to enforce a poorly thought-out policy...
...2. Competent authority: Without authorization by Congress, which alone has the power to declare war, and in contravention of the United Nations charter, U.S...
...How will NATO help the Kosovars return to their homeland safely without ground troups...
...It does not take a military strategist to determine the "strike against Yugoslavia" was everything but successful in achieving its goals...
...We don't have to "do something," if what we do will not be helpful...
Vol. 126 • May 1999 • No. 9
