by Eric Stoner, Waging Nonviolence
(The following article was sent to us from William Privett, regional coordinator for Pax Christi Western New York.)
As always, Stephen Zunes’ writings on U.S. policy toward the Middle East and nonviolent action are some of the most thorough and informative out there, and his articles on the situation in Libya are no exception. At the end of February, he wrote this in-depth piece on the history of U.S.-Libyan relations, which I found very helpful, and more recently he had a great critique of the concepts of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and humanitarian intervention.
Stephen Zunes’ writings on U.S. policy toward the Middle East and nonviolent action are more in line with the gospel of nonviolence and the statements from the Vatican, regarding the “Just War Theory, than the recent statement from the USCCB which quoted Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, New York, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
The Bishop’s statement, “We have refrained from making definitive judgments because the situation on the ground remains complex and involves many decisions beyond our expertise.”, sounds a lot like the “cop out” we heard before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Isn’t this a moral issue and isn’t the Church the expert on the moral teachings of Jesus the Christ?