Washington D.C., Mar 28, 2011 / 15:53 pm
Catholic observers are questioning the humanitarian impact and strategic aims of the U.S. intervention in Libya, as President Obama prepares to deliver a speech defending the military campaign.
“It is our moral responsibility as a nation to rigorously examine the use of military force in light of the need to protect human life and dignity,” wrote Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, head of the U.S. bishops' committee for peace and justice. In a March 24 letter to National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon he said the U.S. bishops were following events in Libya “with great apprehension.”
George Weigel, a Catholic writer and Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center noted that “the problem with the administration's policy thus far, is that it has been feckless, and unattached to any clear strategic goal.”
“Means aren't being connected to strategic ends here – and they won't be until the United States exerts the kind of leadership that only it can give.”