Saturday, March 09, 2002

What We're Fighting For Preamble "AT TIMES it becomes necessary for a nation to defend itself through force of arms. Because war is a grave matter, involving the sacrifice and taking of precious human life, conscience demands that those who would wage the war state clearly the moral reasoning behind their actions, in order to make plain to one another, and to the world community, the principles they are defending. We affirm five fundamental truths that pertain to all people without distinction: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The basic subject of society is the human person, and the legitimate role of government is to protect and help to foster the conditions for human flourishing. Human beings naturally desire to seek the truth about life's purpose and ultimate ends. Freedom of conscience and religious freedom are inviolable rights of the human person. Killing in the name of God is contrary to faith in God and is the greatest betrayal of the universality of religious faith. We fight to defend ourselves and to defend these universal principles." What are American Values? " ... no appeal to the merits or demerits of specific foreign policies can ever justify, or even purport to make sense of, the mass slaughter of innocent persons. ... in a democracy such as ours, in which government derives its power from the consent of the governed, policy stems at least partly from culture, from the values and priorities of the society as a whole. ... our attackers ... grievances extend far beyond any one policy, or set of policies. ... our attackers despise not just our government, but our overall society, our entire way of living. Fundamentally, their grievance concerns not only what our leaders do, but also who we are." So who are we? What do we value? " ... some values sometimes seen in America are unattractive and harmful. Consumerism as a way of life. The notion of freedom as no rules. The notion of the individual as self-made and utterly sovereign, owing little to others or to society. The weakening of marriage and family life. Plus an enormous entertainment and communications apparatus that relentlessly glorifies such ideas and beams them, whether they are welcome or not, into nearly every corner of the globe. One major task facing us as Americans ... is facing honestly these unattractive aspects of our society and doing all we can to change them for the better." " ... other American values - what we view as our founding ideals, and those that most define our way of life ... are much more attractive ... mention four of them. ... first is the conviction that all persons possess innate human dignity as a birthright ... the idea that all persons possess equal dignity. The clearest political expression of a belief in transcendent human dignity is democracy. ... the affirmation of the equal dignity of men and women, and of all persons regardless of race or color. ... second ... the conviction that universal moral truths ... exist and are accessible to all people. ... third is the conviction that, because our individual and collective access to truth is imperfect, most disagreements about values call for civility, openness to other views, and reasonable argument in pursuit of truth. ... fourth is freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. ... these values ... apply to all persons without distinction, and cannot be used to exclude anyone from recognition and respect based on the particularities of race, language, memory, or religion. ... Historically, no other nation has forged its core identity ... so directly and explicitly on the basis of universal human values." " ... we believe that all people are created equal. We believe in the universal possibility and desirability of human freedom. We believe that certain basic moral truths are recognizable everywhere in the world. ... the best of what we too casually call 'American values' do not belong only to America, but are in fact the shared inheritance of humankind, and therefore a possible basis of hope for a world community based on peace and justice." What about God? " ... our belief that invoking God's authority to kill or maim human beings is immoral and is contrary to faith in God. ...  'holy war' or 'crusade,' not only violates basic principles of justice, but is in fact a negation of religious faith, since it turns God into an idol to be used for man's own purposes." "The human person has a basic drive to question in order to know. Evaluating, choosing, and having reasons for what we value and love are characteristically human activities. ... Politically, our separation of church and state seeks to keep politics within its proper sphere, in part by limiting the state's power to control religion, and in part by causing government itself to draw legitimacy from, and operate under, a larger moral canopy that is not of its own making. Spiritually, our separation of church and state permits religion to be religion, by detaching it from the coercive power of government. In short, we seek to separate church and state for the protection and proper vitality of both." A Just War? " ... reason and careful moral reflection also teach us that there are times when the first and most important reply to evil is to stop it. There are times when waging war is not only morally permitted, but morally necessary, as a response to calamitous acts of violence, hatred, and injustice. This is one of those times. ... The primary moral justification for war is to protect the innocent from certain harm. ... If one has compelling evidence that innocent people who are in no position to protect themselves will be grievously harmed unless coercive force is used to stop an aggressor, then the moral principle of love of neighbor calls us to the use of force. ... if the danger to innocent life is real and certain, and especially if the aggressor is motivated by implacable hostility - if the end he seeks is not your willingness to negotiate or comply, but rather your destruction - then a resort to proportionate force is morally justified." "Just war authorities from across history and around the world ... consistently teach us that noncombatants are immune from deliberate attack. ... it is not morally acceptable to make the killing of noncombatants the operational objective of a military action. ... These principles strive to preserve and reflect ... the fundamental moral truth that 'others' - those who are strangers to us, those who differ from us in race or language, those whose religions we may believe to be untrue - have the same right to life that we do, and the same human dignity and human rights that we do." September 11, 2001 "We use the terms "Islam" and "Islamic" to refer to one of the world's great religions, with about 1.2 billion adherents, including several million U.S. citizens ... We use the terms "Islamicism" and "radical Islamicist" to refer to the violent, extremist, and radically intolerant religious-political movement that now threatens the world, including the Muslim world. ... This radical, violent movement opposes not only certain U.S. and western policies ... but also a foundational principle of the modern world, religious tolerance, as well as those fundamental human rights, in particular freedom of conscience and religion ... and that must be the basis of any civilization oriented to human flourishing, justice, and peace." " ... the animating philosophy of this radical Islamicist movement, in its contempt for human life, and by viewing the world as a life-and-death struggle between believers and unbelievers (whether non-radical Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, or others), clearly denies the equal dignity of all persons and, in doing so, betrays religion and rejects the very foundation of civilized life and the possibility of peace among nations." "Those who slaughtered more than 3,000 persons on September 11 and who, by their own admission, want nothing more than to do it again, constitute a clear and present danger to all people of good will everywhere in the world, not just the United States. Such acts are a pure example of naked aggression against innocent human life, a world-threatening evil that clearly requires the use of force to remove it." ... [more] 3:02:43 PM    comment  []

March 9, 2002 Buffett Warns on Terror Attacks, Markets "Billionaire investor Warren Buffett issued a pessimistic outlook on the world on Saturday, saying the war on terror could never be won -- a potential problem for his insurance interests -- and warning that returns from the stock market over the next few years look meager. Buffett, known as the 'Oracle of Omaha' for his astute investments, also blasted executives for taking millions of dollars out of businesses even as they fare badly, a practice he said went far beyond Enron Corp." "'Fear may recede with time, but the danger won't ... The war against terrorism can never be won. The best the nation can achieve is a long succession of stalemates.''' "' ... decidedly lukewarm feelings about the prospects for stocks in general over the next decade or so ... Today's equity prices presage only moderate returns for investors ... The market outperformed business for a very long period, and that phenomenon had to end. A market that no more than parallels business progress, however, is likely to leave many investors disappointed, particularly those relatively new to the game.''' BOSSES MAKE OFF WITH THE CASH "Buffett also returned to a favorite theme -- the shabby ethics of many businesses in the United States -- encapsulated by the tech bubble and the fall of Enron. ... 'disgusted by the situation, so common in the last few years, in which shareholders have suffered billions in losses while the CEOs, promoters, and other higher-ups who fathered these disasters have walked away with extraordinary wealth' ... Enron has become the symbol for shareholder abuse, Buffett said, but 'there is no shortage of egregious conduct elsewhere in corporate America' ... " ... [more] 9:59:25 AM    comment  []