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IMAGE: CNS photo/U.S. Navy handout via ReutersBy Dennis SadowskiWASHINGTON(CNS) -- The U.S. cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base days after chemicalweapons were dropped on civilians in rebel-controlled territory furtherendangers innocent people, observers familiar with the just-war theory said.Ifanything, the observers told Catholic News Service, the unilateral U.S.response could embolden SyrianPresident Bashar Assad to undertake future attacks, exposing more livesto harm -- including those of people fleeing the violence.TheU.S. strike early April 7 on the Shayrat airfield came three days after chemical weapons weredropped in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province.The attack claimed more than 80 lives, including dozens of children.President Donald Trump has citedthe deaths of the children in particular in condemning the attack prior to theretaliatory strike.The Pentagon reported that 23 of59 missiles launched from warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea struck theair ...
IMAGE: CNS photo/U.S. Navy handout via Reuters
By Dennis Sadowski
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base days after chemical weapons were dropped on civilians in rebel-controlled territory further endangers innocent people, observers familiar with the just-war theory said.
If anything, the observers told Catholic News Service, the unilateral U.S. response could embolden Syrian President Bashar Assad to undertake future attacks, exposing more lives to harm -- including those of people fleeing the violence.
The U.S. strike early April 7 on the Shayrat airfield came three days after chemical weapons were dropped in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province. The attack claimed more than 80 lives, including dozens of children.
President Donald Trump has cited the deaths of the children in particular in condemning the attack prior to the retaliatory strike.
The Pentagon reported that 23 of 59 missiles launched from warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea struck the air base. Military leaders were unsure of the status of the remaining 36 missiles.
SANA, the Syrian state news agency, said 15 people died during the U.S. attack and that nine of the dead, including four children, were civilians.
Overall, the six-year civil war has claimed as many as 470,000 lives according to various humanitarian agencies. An estimated 4.8 million people have been displaced with many fleeing the country altogether.
Such numbers should give pause to the U.S. and the world to think about the morality of future military actions and focus on responding to the needs of displaced people rather than one-time retaliatory strikes, said the expert observers.
"Few problems get resolved in 24 hours," said Jesuit Father John Langan, who holds the Cardinal Bernardin Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University.
Father Langan was among several people who said that applying the just-war theory in Syria's conflict is difficult because the warring factions are within one country rather than among two or more nation states, but that moral reason requires that the primary concern must be the protection of civilians.
The just-war theory encompasses seven principles: war as a last resort; war is waged by a legitimate authority; just cause in that a war must be in response to wrong suffered; probability of success; right intention to re-establish peace; proportionality so that the violence in a just war is proportional to the casualties suffered; and civilian casualties, meaning civilians are never the target in a just war.
"I think civilians are at great risk, but it's not as if there are risk-free alternatives in that situation," Father Langan told CNS. "And the level of risk depends on the smart quality of intelligence available. It's particularly important in light of these considerations to avoid attacks that kill large numbers of civilians, particularly children."
Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Colin Powell when he was secretary of state and now is a distinguished adjunct professor of government and policy at the College of William and Mary, said U.S. leaders seem to have ignored the refugees.
"That should be the very first emphasis, taking care of these people," Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson and others questioned Trump's reasoning for the April 7 missile strike -- the protection of civilians -- while the administration has called for prohibiting Syrian refugees from entering the U.S., when in the past they have been welcomed.
They also expressed concern beyond such focused moral questions that the U.S. strike seemed to occur with no specific strategy in place to address the complicated Syrian situation.
"If you look at the (U.S.) strike, my concern about it is on just-war grounds. But I'm also concerned that it seems to be a one-off, something that doesn't seem to be related to working toward just peace," said Daniel Philpott, professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.
Philpott called for the international community to step up in response.
"In a strict legal sense and a larger moral sense, there needs to be a much more concerted international effort to not just have pinprick strikes, but toward bringing the whole thing to a halt," he told CNS.
Notre Dame colleague David Cortright, director of policy studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, said the U.S. action "does not fit an ethical response," because not all the facts were known at the time.
"When we respond so quickly in a military fashion it looks like retaliation rather than an attempt to find a solution," Cortright explained. "Our ethical foundation calls us to find solutions to conflict, not to retaliate."
While the use of chemical weapons is a "gross violation of human rights," Msgr. Stuart Swetland, president of Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, who once served aboard a nuclear weapon-armed submarine while with the U.S. Navy, said the situation in Syria requires that "we want to think these things through."
Msgr. Swetland expressed concern that there "is not a serious discussion on the U.S. use of military power" in Syria despite the onslaught of U.S. bombs in the country. An estimated 25,000 bombs were dropped by American forces during the last year of President Barack Obama's administration without congressional authorization.
"Right now, we're bombing both sides in the civil war. What is your hope and what is your goal?" he asked.
The observers suggested that a strong moral and ethical priority should be for the world to pursue negotiations among all of Syria's factions to end the civil war -- as Pope Francis has repeatedly stated.
How that comes about is difficult to determine. But the answer, the observers told CNS, partially lies in the willingness of Russia, Assad's main backer, and the U.S. to step back from a major confrontation between the world's largest holders of nuclear weapons and do what's best in the interests of the world.
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Follow Sadowski on Twitter: @DennisSadowski.
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Embattled Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly, who announced he was going on vacation starting Wednesday and returning April 24, hasn't taken off this much time consecutively in March or April for at least 10 years, an examination of his show's transcripts revealed....
Washington D.C., Apr 12, 2017 / 02:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Three chairmen of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference have voiced strong support for a measure that would restore certain religious freedoms to child welfare providers.The recently introduced Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2017 would prevent the federal government, and any state receiving federal funds for child welfare services, from taking adverse action against a provider that, for religious or moral reasons, declines to provide a child welfare social service.Under the previous administration, several faith-based child welfare providers in multiple states including in Massachusetts, Illinois, California, and the District of Columbia, have been forced to shut down their adoption and foster care services because of beliefs that children should be placed with a married mother and father.In the case of Illinois, more than 3,000 children were displaced after religiously affiliated adoption and foster care services ha...
Washington D.C., Apr 12, 2017 / 02:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Three chairmen of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference have voiced strong support for a measure that would restore certain religious freedoms to child welfare providers.
The recently introduced Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2017 would prevent the federal government, and any state receiving federal funds for child welfare services, from taking adverse action against a provider that, for religious or moral reasons, declines to provide a child welfare social service.
Under the previous administration, several faith-based child welfare providers in multiple states including in Massachusetts, Illinois, California, and the District of Columbia, have been forced to shut down their adoption and foster care services because of beliefs that children should be placed with a married mother and father.
In the case of Illinois, more than 3,000 children were displaced after religiously affiliated adoption and foster care services had to close their doors. Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois decided to cut ties from their affiliated Catholic diocese and operate as a separate Christian non-profit in order to maintain consistent services for the children.
Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, and Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln expressed their support for the Inclusion Act in letters to Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) in the U.S. House of Representatives and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) in the U.S. Senate, who introduced the bill.
"The Inclusion Act would remedy this unjust discrimination by enabling all providers to serve the needs of parents and children in a manner consistent with the providers' religious beliefs and moral convictions," the bishops said.
“Our first and most cherished freedom, religious liberty, is to be enjoyed by all Americans, including child welfare providers who serve the needs of children. The Inclusion Act protects the freedom of all child welfare providers by ensuring they will not be discriminated against by the government because of their religious beliefs or moral convictions,” they wrote.
The Bishops also stressed that the Inclusion Act respects the religious freedom of parents who are looking to place their children into adoption or foster care services.
“Women and men who want to place their children for adoption ought to be able to choose an agency that shares the parents’ religious beliefs and moral convictions. The Inclusion Act recognizes and respects this parental choice.”
Minya, Egypt, Apr 12, 2017 / 03:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After two bomb attacks on worshippers at Coptic Orthodox churches on Sunday, the Coptic Orthodox Archdiocese of Minya has announced it will celebrate Easter without the typical festive accoutrements.The observance of Easter in the Minya Coptic Orthodox archdiocese will be limited to liturgical services “without any festive manifestations” in mourning for the nearly 45 Coptic Orthodox faithful who were killed in attacks on Sunday, the AP reports.Two Coptic Orthodox churches were the targets of Islamic State bombings on April 9, Palm Sunday. The attack on St. George's in Tanta, nearly 60 miles north of Cairo, killed 28. Shortly after, another bomb went off outside St. Mark's cathedral in Alexandria, killing 17.The attacks came only weeks before Pope Francis plans to visit Egypt to promote peace and dialogue between Christians and Muslims in the country. Pope Francis, after celebrating Palm Sunday Mass at St. P...
Minya, Egypt, Apr 12, 2017 / 03:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After two bomb attacks on worshippers at Coptic Orthodox churches on Sunday, the Coptic Orthodox Archdiocese of Minya has announced it will celebrate Easter without the typical festive accoutrements.
The observance of Easter in the Minya Coptic Orthodox archdiocese will be limited to liturgical services “without any festive manifestations” in mourning for the nearly 45 Coptic Orthodox faithful who were killed in attacks on Sunday, the AP reports.
Two Coptic Orthodox churches were the targets of Islamic State bombings on April 9, Palm Sunday. The attack on St. George's in Tanta, nearly 60 miles north of Cairo, killed 28. Shortly after, another bomb went off outside St. Mark's cathedral in Alexandria, killing 17.
The attacks came only weeks before Pope Francis plans to visit Egypt to promote peace and dialogue between Christians and Muslims in the country. Pope Francis, after celebrating Palm Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Square, decried the violence and asked God to “convert the hearts of those who sow fear, violence and death, and those who make and traffic arms.” He also expressed solidarity with Tawardos II, the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency following the attacks.
Sunday’s atrocities follow a months-long spike in anti-Christian violence in Egypt, particularly in the country’s Sinai region.
In December 2016, 29 died in a bombing of a chapel next to St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo, for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility.
Egyptian society was also profoundly shocked by the beheading in Libya of 20 Coptic Orthodox faithful and a companion by Islamic State militants in February 2015.
