“America should offer sanctuary to those escaping ISIL’s depredations. The disappearance of Christians, who predate Muslims, from the Middle East is a historic, cultural, and personal tragedy accelerated by Washington’s counterproductive war-making. The administration could airlift refugees out as well as drop in supplies. But a relief operation should not become an excuse for turning America into a belligerent.”
from America Helped Make the Islamic State by Charles Davis:
“ ‘Be that as it may, professor, what do we now?’ a concerned citizen might ask. ‘Do we let people die because you hate America?’
Well, friend: there is a genuine humanitarian crisis in Iraq and, since it helped create the disaster that is now unfolding, the United States does have a duty to help out. But—and this is really important, guys—bombing Iraq has never once made the situation there better. It has actually made things a lot worse, leading to body counts beyond the most committed jihadist’s wildest dreams (while creating loads of new jihadists, the presence of which can be cited to justify the next intervention).
The absence of a good answer to a problem like ISIS is not a good reason to embrace a snake-oil cure that has proven time and again to be worse than the disease. The US military is not a humanitarian organization, nor should it be expected to behave like one. If America wants to help, it should offer those fleeing the violence in Iraq the ability to seek refuge in the United States—and promise those who stay behind that it will never ever bomb them again.”
from Luke, Chapter 10:
“But a certain Samaritan being on his journey, came near him; and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine: and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two pence, and gave to the host, and said: Take care of him; and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I, at my return, will repay thee.”
I am a Catholic who was raised by a WWII vet who convinced his six sons that the moral calculus favored the U.S. actions in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, etc., despite the protestations of my America First Mom. I was ready to be drafted for Vietnam, having convinced my Dad I needed to spend my last months surfing the North Shore of Oahu before dying in Vietnam (he agreed to sending me to college there “you know, there are Catholic schools there, Gar”).
My Mom was one of the founders of our local pro-life counseling centers, back in the early Seventies. My wife and I have ten kids and, on my side, those kids are among 40 cousins and now 33 second cousins as that generation is marrying.
So, we travel among Catholics who take the Faith seriously.
Somewhere along the line (helped by Sobran and Buchanan) several of my brothers and I started questioning the Republican party line that seemed never to leave the Domino Theory behind, even after the fall of the Iron Curtain. We really could not discuss this with Dad and Mom wanted us to leave it alone as he felt we were being anti-American be ever questioning the Republicans or our foreign policy history. A great mystery/tragedy of the last decade plus has been to see among my home-school, trad, Thomas Aquinas College friends the same ethic my Dad understandably held on these subjects and applying it to justifying all kinds of imprudent and immoral wars in our time. I want to scream “Being pro-life includes opposing unjust killing abroad!” but I have found that line is a definite buzz-kill at cocktail parties. More to the point, I find the same kind of deafness (“are we even speaking the same language here?”) with my friends on this subject as I have found among the Planned Parenthood folks I have debated.
Thank you for your voice, your energy, your fresh voice! Thank God for you, Lew Rockwell, Ron Paul!
Keep the Faith!
Very truly yours,
Gary Schuberg
P.S. My Ron Paul car sticker is ill-received on the TAC campus. Sigh.
Gary,
Thanks for your very interesting and thoughtful comments. The Catholic Faith is incompatible with “Americanism” and the “culture of death” whether it’s the Republican variety or the Democratic variety. I have long thought that one key to the restoration of Catholicism in America would be to overcome the blind spot that many prolife Catholics have in regard to the Federal War Machine. I will try to make that a theme on this blog to the best of my ability.
Doug