Special
Report The
ethics of war
By PATRICK ONEILL
When terrorists flew a passenger jet into the Pentagon Sept. 11,
Carol Corgan, a teacher at Gonzaga High School, knew she had to switch gears in
her social justice class.
Many of Corgans 28 seniors in this all-boys Jesuit
school in downtown Washington pass the Pentagon each day while traveling to and
from school.
Emotions were raw, and talk of revenge was almost universal among
students, said Corgan, who is religion department chair. She wanted to make
sure her students, most of whom are at or approaching the legal age for
military service, were well enough versed in the churchs moral teachings
to make an informed decision regarding participation in war.
When the tragedy occurred, I switched up my schedule and
moved just war to the front, Corgan said.
The so-called just war ethic provides a specific and complex moral
framework in which Christians can make an informed assessment about the
rightness or wrongness of war as an option to resolve conflict in a given
situation.
In their 1982 pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace:
Gods Promise and Our Response, the U.S. bishops reiterated the just
war criteria. The purpose of moral theory is not, in the first place, to
legitimize war but to prevent it, the bishops wrote. The
presumption is against the use of force.
In order for the use of force to be justified, seven just war
criteria must be addressed: competent authority, just cause, right intention,
last resort, probability of success, proportionality and just means.
Raised on what she calls Blow em up movies,
Corgan said she also wanted to help the boys make the distinction between
Hollywood and the real thing. A lot of the guys didnt like the
strict and narrow parameters of just war, she said. Theyre
really good guys, but theyre also kind of already inculturated in this
other mentality.
As the prospect of war looms large in the wake of the terrorist
attacks in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania, many Catholic theologians and
educators have also moved just war discussions to the front of their
agendas.
At Notre Dame, theology professor Michael Baxter, a Holy Cross
Father and self-described pacifist, is a proponent of the teachings of the late
Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Baxter used the terrorist
attacks as the basis for discussion in his class titled, A Faith to Die
For, an introduction to Catholicism and moral theology.
Baxter opened the Sept. 13 class telling the students about his
friend, Neil Hyland, an Army officer who died in the Pentagon attack. He
invited students to also share personal experiences. About 15 of the 70
students talked. More shared when the topic switched to a more general
discussion about the attacks.
It was real somber and it was good, Baxter said.
At both Gonzaga and Notre Dame, students reacted with a similar
combination of anger, grief and a desire for revenge.
Corgan told her students that she is not a pacifist and that she
was also struggling for answers regarding an appropriate response. The just war
ethic immediately gave her students pause. Many of them were surprised that a
just war would not permit the targeting of civilians.
A lot of them would want to think that if you had to bomb
civilian targets that would be OK, she said. Killing noncombatants
is never appropriate, she told them, even if it helps to end the
war.
Theyd like it to be OK to use more force than just war
theory would permit, she said.
Corgan was pleased that her students didnt reject out of
hand the possibility that there could be a just war, but were willing to
struggle with the moral questions.
To help the students understand the just war criteria, Corgan used
an analogy comparing the actions of soldiers to those of the Washington
police.
The police are only supposed to use the force necessary to
deal with criminals, she said. Analogously on the international
scene, the same in terms of just war would apply. And thats what
theyre struggling with.
More than two weeks after the attacks, Corgan said her students
have become more thoughtful and less emotional.
Yet, anger still lingers for 18-year-old Joseph Burns. The day of
the attack on the Pentagon, Burns passed the smoldering Pentagon on the way to
his home in McLean, Va. His immediate thought, which was echoed by most of his
fellow students, was to go to war to avenge the attacks.
Things are definitely not normal, he said. I
think everybody is angry. Theyre scared, obviously, but my friends, when
I talk to them, theyre more angry than anything.
The desire to go to war has subsided for some of the students, but
for some such as Burns the conflict about moral choices becomes real when
considering the possibility of a draft. His discussions in Corgans class
have led him to conclude that a war against the impoverished people of
Afghanistan would not be just, but he also isnt sure what he would do if
a military draft were reinstated and he was called up to fight.
Personally I would fight just because Im a nationalist
and I believe strongly in America, Burns said. I dont think
we should attack, but if I get drafted I would definitely fight. Seconds
later, though, Burns mentioned Vietnam, a war he thinks was wrong, and his
thoughts changed.
Maybe I wouldnt join the draft, he said.
Then I would just let myself get arrested. If they did reinstate the
draft over just attacking Afghanistan, I dont think I could actually
fight.
For her part, Corgan is pleased that she was able to lead her
students to a level of thinking that got beyond raw emotions. They had to
look at it, and not just be too flag-waving, lets go get
em. They had to look at [just war] and confront what the church
says even if they dont like it.
An initial surge of patriotism also swept the Notre Dame campus,
Baxter said. The response is dishearteningly typical of responses of
students at Notre Dame in past wars, Vietnam being the exception, Baxter
said. Theres just a lot of flag-waving; theres flags all over
the place. The overwhelming response has been one of a display of patriotism,
which began as a legitimate expression of grief and unity, but which sometime
five or six days after this attack started to transform into a display of
patriotism, and a call for vengeance -- a display, I should say, of nationalism
and a call for vengeance.
Questions of just war must be raised, Baxter said, and he expects
the Bush administration will be ready with answers.
My guess is that a lot of people in this administration,
which has made its business to be conversant with Catholic tradition, will have
answers to this, Baxter said, and theyll be plenty of
theologians, Catholic theologians, who will have answers to this and the answer
will be, Yes, its just. Because theres a whole stock of
theologians who have never met a war they didnt like.
Georgetown professor Jesuit Fr. John Langan teaches in both the
philosophy department and in the school of foreign service. While the Vietnam
War seriously violated the just war principle of proportionality,
Langan says both Osama bin Laden, the person being linked to the terrorist
attacks, and the Afghanistan government could be legitimate targets
under just war criteria. Langan, who wrote an article on the subject to be
published in the Oct. 8 issue of America magazine, likened the situation
to three circles.
The first circle is Osama bin Laden and his network. If evidence
concludes that bin Laden is at the center of the attacks ... then he is a
legitimate target as well as the people who collaborated to bring
this disaster about, which resulted in the murder of thousands of people,
Langan said.
The second circle is Afghanistan.
It does seem to be that the Afghan government, by giving
safe harbor and comfort and supplying resources to Osama bin Laden, is a
legitimate target, Langan said. But it would be very unwise for us
to adopt proposals that require us to be in control of Afghanistan for some
length of time or that involve replacing the government there.
That brings us towards Vietnam I think, and thats a
bad way to go.
On the basis of the principle of proportionality, war could start
with a legitimate target, bin Laden, Langan said. Keeping a careful eye
on the relationship of means and ends I think is very important.
The third circle is the Islamic world.
If were going to maintain structures of peace over the
long run, we need to build better relationships with the Islamic world,
Langan said. In fighting terrorism we have to make sure that the actions
we take dont foreclose that possibility.
In the face of the attacks, Pope John Paul II made several strong
statements calling for peace.
With all my heart, I beg God to keep the world in
peace, the pope said. We must not let what has happened lead to a
deepening of divisions. Religion must never be used as a reason for
conflict.
Said Langan: Peace remains a very important good. In the
just war tradition people are to be reluctant warriors rather than people who
find that its some kind of vindication of their being or their manhood to
be out there shooting folks up. So I find that what the pope says in favor of
peace is correct and worth saying. Just war thinking is always a
yes-but sort of system. Its saying, Yes, theres a
right to defend yourself, but you have to do it with certain limits. Yes,
theres a prior commitment to peace, but at certain times its
necessary to use force.
For Boston College professor of Christian ethics Lisa Sowle
Cahill, the threat of war goes far beyond the philosophical. Lisa and Larry
Cahill are the parents of four teenage boys, three of whom are draft age. The
prospect of her sons going off to war is scary, Cahill said.
Just war counsels caution, she said. I think
that most importantly in the criteria of justice in going to war we would need
to look at whether this is really a last resort, and also whether theres
a reasonable hope of success, as well as whether the action taken is
proportionate to the good that we expect to accomplish.
Those are the kind of criteria that cause yellow lights to
be blinking. The protection of civilian life is also critical in any
engagement, Cahill said.
Cahill said conditions that may have led to the terrorist attacks
must be analyzed. There are many contributing conditions to the situation
that we find ourselves in that dont have to do with only religion, but
also with economics, she said. Americans in general tend to have
quite an insular view of their own identity, and their governments
actions.
Cahill said she was moved by a sermon delivered by her pastor at
Newtons Our Lady Hope of Christians Catholic Church.
Using the Amos (8:4-7) reading from the 25th Sunday in Ordinary
Time, Fr. Walter Cuenin, spoke of the oppression of the poor as the cause
of the type of feeling that leads to terrorism, Cahill said.
As the war rhetoric heated up, Cahill said it gave her husband
pause. After the attacks, Larry Cahill had flown an American flag in front of
their house just out of that feeling of unity and being appalled at what
had happened, Lisa Cahill said. But within a week he took it down
because he said he didnt like the sound of where things were
going.
Should things lead to war, Notre Dames Baxter says he doubts
Catholics already serving in the military will have the information necessary
to make good moral choices.
They themselves need to look at these [just war] criteria
and use them as personal guides to discern the extent to which theyre
ready to cooperate with this action, and in particular being absolutely
concerned not to do something intrinsically evil, like take the lives of the
innocent. Thats where the rubber hits the road when it comes to actual
soldiers. Our church teaches that noncooperation with evil is a moral
duty.
The responsibility to counsel Catholic soldiers on matters of
morality in the conduct of war is the duty of military chaplains, Baxter
said.
I suppose, to put it nicely, that kind of critical
reflection is not encouraged, Baxter said. Because it could mean
someone might say, I think this is too dangerous morally, and I should be
switched out of duty. Its just not conducive to the kind of
atmosphere they try to cultivate in the military, which is one of you
obey your command.
Richmond, Va., Bishop Walter Sullivan is president of Pax Christi
USA, the Erie, Pa.,-based Catholic peace organization. Sullivan, known for
being outspoken against war, said the pope and the church have taken a
strong position against any revenge or retaliation, especially if it involves
the lives of innocent people. We should not render evil for evil and turn
around and do the very things were condemning the terrorists for
doing.
I think its an outrage to speak about a war on
terrorists, Sullivan continued. I support completely bringing those
responsible to justice, but lets not blow the world apart trying to do
so.
Patrick ONeill is a freelance writer living in Raleigh,
N.C.
National Catholic Reporter, October 5,
2001
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