The National Catholic Weekly March 15, 2010 $3.50 of Many Things
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THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY MARCH 15, 2010 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES he Quadrennial Defense rocket went off-target and killed civil- Review is a Congressionally ians, the weapon was withdrawn from EDITOR IN CHIEF Drew Christiansen, S.J. mandated report by the service until the cause of the error TSecretary of Defense on U.S. strategic could be found. EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT goals and the personnel, hardware and The military tries to learn from its MANAGING EDITOR financing required to realize them. mistakes. What has not happened in Robert C. Collins, S.J. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates Afghanistan, however, is the disciplin- EDITORIAL DIRECTOR presented the 2010 Q.D.R. on Feb. 1. ing of personnel for inflicting civilian Karen Sue Smith His willingness to cut big-budget casualties. In northern Afghanistan, ONLINE EDITOR weapons systems that are relics of the when an isolated unit was exposed to Maurice Timothy Reidy cold war helped to bring the defense prolonged attack by the Taliban, field CULTURE EDITOR budget in line with meeting actual officers were disciplined for their failure James Martin, S.J. threats and the ongoing missions in to protect the unit. Similar discipline LITERARY EDITOR Iraq and Afghanistan, but they yielded seems not to have been applied when Patricia A. Kossmann no overall savings in defense spending. civilians were killed. POETRY EDITOR The report pays attention to the In counterterrorism operations, the James S. Torrens, S.J. needs of the active military, veterans problem of instilling accountability for ASSOCIATE EDITORS and their families, who have dispropor- civilian deaths is complicated because the George M. Anderson, S.J. tionately paid the price for war in C.I.A., rather than the military, operates Peter Schineller, S.J. Afghanistan and Iraq. many of the drones responsible for collat- Kevin Clarke The military will be asked to prepare eral casualties. The C.I.A. does not oper- ART DIRECTOR for rescue and relief operations follow- ate under restraints of the laws of armed Stephanie Ratcliffe ing natural disasters both at home and conflict or the discipline of military jus- ASSISTANT EDITORS abroad. Americans should be proud of tice. Targeting in these attacks is both Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. the transport and logistical capacities morally and legally problematic because Kerry Weber that make U.S. help indispensable in it involves assassination or, to use a term ASSISTANT LITERARY EDITOR complex humanitarian emergencies like favored by the Israelis, “targeted killings” Regina Nigro the current rescue effort in Haiti. (see Jane Mayer, “Predator War,” The But the variety of threats cited by New Yorker, 10/26/09). BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Secretary Gates, as well as shifts in mil- Some argue that these killings are PUBLISHER itary technology, demand further exam- justified acts of self-defense; others, Jan Attridge ination, especially as they strain mili- that outside the field of battle they are CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER tary law and ethics. Counterinsurgency prohibited by international law. Lisa Pope and counterterrorism will continue to Misleading intelligence from local infor- ADVERTISING be major foci of U.S. defense efforts. mants, which has lead to noncombatant Julia Sosa Under General David Petraeus, the casualties, is cited as another reason for head of the U.S. Central Command not authorizing assassination by drone 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 (Middle East and Central Asia), coun- as a tool of national defense. terinsurgency efforts have begun to As the number of threats against Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 reduce civilian casualties, primarily for which we feel we must defend ourselves E-mail: [email protected]; strategic rather than moral reasons. An grows and as new political realities like [email protected] Web site: www.americamagazine.org. army cannot win counterinsurgency global terrorism and new technologies Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 campaigns until the people are ready to like drones muddy the old clarities, the © 2010 America Press, Inc. trust it more than the insurgents. need to determine the moral and legal In the recent Marja campaign, under limits under which the military and civil- Petraeus’s supervision, the allies gave ian agents carry on that defense grows notice of their intentions well in more and more necessary. Moral scruti- Cover: A United States Air Force advance of the attack, so civilians would ny, like that by Mary Ellen O’Connell technician pushes a Predator have time to leave the region; they and Maryann Cusimano Love in this unmanned surveillance plane out of its hangar at an airbase in the Gulf received prior agreement to the cam- issue of America, will be required. on March 10, 2003. Reuters/Chris paign from local elders, and when a DREW CHRISTIANSEN, S.J. Helgren CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org VOL. 202 NO. 8, WHOLE NO. 4886 MARCH 15, 2010 ARTICLES 11 FLYING BLIND U.S. combat drones operate outside international law. Mary Ellen O’Connell A Troubling Disconnection Maryann Cusimano Love COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 5 Editorial Administering Justice 11 6 Signs of the Times 9 Column Antidote for Anomie John F. Kavanaugh 16 Faith in Focus A Season of Grace Christopher M. Bellitto 21 Poem Ahimsa Edwin L. Millet 28 Letters 31 The Word The Finger of God Barbara E. Reid 16 BOOKS & CULTURE 18 TELEVISION “Damages” and “The Good Wife” look at female ambition BOOKS Faith-Based War; The Purples Are Coming!; Making Sense of Evolution ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Kevin Spinale, S.J., discusses the novel Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann, right, on our podcast. Plus, from the archives, Drew Christiansen, S.J., on the just war theory after Sept. 11. All at americamagazine.org. 18 CURRENT COMMENT ensues. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles was recently The Cost of Uranium ordered by an Italian court to return the Getty’s iconic President Obama has stated his support for the construc- bronze statue of an athlete. The museum says it did not tion of safe, clean nuclear power plants in the United know the work had been removed from Italy illegally. The States but has said little about the methods by which the judge countered that the museum showed “grave negli- uranium needed to run them will be obtained. One possi- gence.” Around the globe, artworks have been taken and ble location: the Arizona 1 mine, located approximately 10 retaken as invading armies plundered palaces and muse- miles from Grand Canyon National Park. At this spot in ums; others are housed in museums that have superior December 2009, uranium mining resumed after a 20-year resources for conservation. Both issues make deciding hiatus. Denison Mines, a Canadian company, will extract ownership a thorny question. Others were simply pilfered up to eight 20-ton truckloads of uranium per day. The from the original sites. The Elgin Marbles, part of the mining has begun, despite lawsuits from environmental Parthenon, were spirited away in 1801 by Lord Elgin and groups and a two-year ban on new mining claims, to assess are still in the British Museum. But Haverford did the the environmental and economic impacts of the mines. right thing. Ownership does not trump ethics. That would Denison’s claim is not a new one, however, so the company be putting Descartes before the horse. has been given appropriate permits to move forward. Its decision was spurred by rising uranium prices. But are The Urgency of Now increased profits worth the increased risk of environmental The health care summit meeting on Feb. 25 ended not with contamination and health problems? a bang but with a grimace. With the Republican opposition On the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona, where determined to remain only that, Democrats are left scram- extensive uranium mining took place more than 50 years bling to salvage health care reform before its momentum ago, the effects are still felt. Sheep graze in the midst of peters out completely. To start over, as Republicans disin- radioactive tailing piles, and more than 2.3 million tons of genuously suggest—as though they were not present and hazardous waste have been buried near the reservation had no responsibility to participate in the yearlong pro- town of Tuba City, Ariz., covered only by a layer of soil cess—would be to postpone reform indefinitely. and rock. Contaminated water and soil are thought to have But Congress cannot merely shrug off the vexing prob- increased instances of cancer and birth defects over time. A lem of health care in the United States or pretend to “fix” recent U.S. Geological Survey concluded that, while 95 it through tepid efforts at cost control. It does not serve the percent of the water near the mining strip north of the common good to help 3 million additional families pay for Grand Canyon was drinkable, contamination could be health insurance when more than 10 times that number found in areas near the mines. More work must be done to have none. And it is morally unacceptable for 45,000 peo- clean up past contamination and eliminate potential future ple to die each year in one of the wealthiest nations on problems before new mining projects move forward. earth for lack of health care insurance. As a player in the health care debate, the church may not Descartes in Pennsylvania achieve all its goals immediately, though it has already In the mid-1800s an Italian mathematician stole from the achieved a great deal in protecting the integrity of the Hyde Institut de France a stack of letters written by René Amendment.