10/01/2004
Elections 2004 and Theology of the Cross
October 2004: Politics (Volume 4 Issue 10)
[1] My observations of this political season leave me in despair. My thesis here is drawn from my observations-truth is not any longer either the goal or expectation in American politics. What I am pointing to here is a general public perception that we are unable to expect public discourse and public leaders to be […]
Forgotten Issue and Major Candidate Concern: The United Nations and “Publicity”
October 2004: Politics (Volume 4 Issue 10)
[1] The coming decade looks to be a time of testing for the United Nations and for the U.S. relationship to it. In the current political debate period discussion about this occurs only in coded, veiled, and vague speech revolving around unilateralism and multilateralism or global leadership and “no ‘global test’ under my watch,” and […]
A Review of Jean Bethke Elshtain’s Just War against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World
October 2004: Politics (Volume 4 Issue 10)
[1] Jean Bethke Elshtain’s Just War against Terror is her response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. The original publication date was 2003, and the most recent edition also contains analysis of the initial prosecution of the Iraq war. Elshtain’s analysis is pursued from the perspective of “just war theory,” a theory that finds […]
Review of Jean Bethke Elshtain, Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World
October 2004: Politics (Volume 4 Issue 10)
[1] This book was a disappointment to me, and therefore a missed opportunity. It is a disappointment in the sense that those looking for a sustained and informative treatment of the struggle against terrorism illuminated by the just war tradition will be let down- a conclusion confirmed for me by both civilians and soldiers (one […]
Review of Just War Against Terror by Jean Bethke Elshtain
October 2004: Politics (Volume 4 Issue 10)
[1] Jean Bethke Elshtain opens Just War against Terror by asking a simple, but crucial question. “What Happened on September 11?” is the title of the opening chapter, where she challenges her readers with two different interpretations of that terrible day in New York, Washington, D.C. and western Pennsylvania. The first is Pope John Paul […]
Major Concerns of the Candidates in the 2004 Election
October 2004: Politics (Volume 4 Issue 10)
[1] In our upcoming elections, these are three broad commitments that I would like all candidates to make. [2] Let’s talk about real issues: restoring a politics of substance Politics within our present context has been debased. Real policy alternatives are often not discussed or debated. It sometimes seems that “image” is almost everything. Candidates […]