Most of war on terror is not war, experts say in round-table talks

Published: 2006-08-29

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- "It's a metaphor," said Jesuit Father John Langan, a professor of Catholic social thought at Georgetown University, when asked if the war on terrorism is really a war. "Most of what's effective against terrorism is not in the basket of war, though war is a very politically effective title to use to mobilize resources and political parties," said Maryann Cusimano Love, a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America. "In the military we don't like to use the word 'war'" for the struggle against terrorism and terrorists, said Franciscan Father Louis V. Iasiello, president of Washington Theological Union and a 25-year Navy chaplain who recently retired as chief of Navy chaplains. "We talked, even in the '80s and '90s, about 'low-intensity conflict.' We always tried to phrase it in a different way because to us 'war' is just too encompassing a dynamic." At the request of Catholic News Service the two priests and Cusimano Love, all specialists in just-war issues, came together Aug. 21 at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center in Washington to engage in a round-table discussion about the war on terror, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and just-war thinking since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon five years ago.

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