Terrorism poses just-war challenges, panelists say at round table

Published: 2006-08-29

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The struggle against global terrorism is stirring new discussions about the just-war tradition and its application in the post-Sept. 11 world, said three experts convened by Catholic News Service in August for a round-table discussion of just war and the events of the past five years. While none indicated moral problems with military actions to destroy al-Qaida terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, serious questions were raised about whether the invasion of Iraq was justified. The round-table participants, who met at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington, were Maryann Cusimano Love, a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America in Washington and an expert on terrorism and ethics in international relations; Jesuit Father John Langan, professor of Catholic social thought at Georgetown and a specialist in the just-war tradition; and Franciscan Father Louis V. Iasiello, new president of Washington Theological Union and a rear admiral who recently retired as chief of Navy chaplains after more than 20 years in the chaplain corps.

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