Rules of war still apply even if one side ignores them, panelists say

Published: 2006-08-29

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Even if terrorists or insurgents attack civilians and ignore other moral rules of warfare, those who are fighting back must still follow those rules, said experts at a round-table discussion of just-war issues five years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The round table was convened by Catholic News Service Aug. 21 at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington. Panelists were just-war experts from The Catholic University of America and Georgetown University and a former chief of Navy chaplains who wrote his doctoral thesis on the requirements of moral conduct in waging war. Franciscan Father Louis V. Iasiello, now president of Washington Theological Union, said that before his recent retirement as chief of Navy chaplains he was twice asked to lecture at the U.S. war colleges on how the military should "fight an enemy that either ignores or exploits the rules of war for tactical, operational or strategic gain." He said, "The answer may be found not in asking 'What should I do?' but 'Who am I?' ... If we're here to represent the constitutional values that we're willing to fight and die for, then we'd better be ready to put those same principles on the line in the field of battle. So I said (in those lectures) if you ask yourself 'Who are you?' you'll come to the realization of what you should do."

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .