Monthly Archives: September 2021

Have you heard about the Saint Joseph Summit taking place September 30th through October 3rd? Bishop Barbarito invites you to join with him on this virtual pilgrimage in this video,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS_2n-6SQ-8. Visithttps://www.spiritfilledevents.comto learn more!

Editors note: The following is the homily offered by Bishop Gerald Barbarito at the ordination to the Permanent Diaconate, celebrated at Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola Sept. 11, 2021

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you (Jer 1: 45).

These words from the prophet Jeremiah, spoken in the first reading, are addressed to you, my brothers, Francis and Mark, in a particular way as you are ordained deacons for the service of the People of God here in the Diocese of Palm Beach. We are all grateful to you for carefully listening to and discerning the call of the Lord and for your faithful devotion to your program of preparation at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary, bringing you here today. Likewise, we are grateful to your families for their support and to all in our diaconate preparation program who walked with you and assisted you during the preceding years. Indeed, the Lord knows you personally and affirms the particular identity He has given to you.

We read in the second reading from the Acts of the Apostles this morning, that seven men were chosen by the apostles so that, as apostles, they could continue to carry out the ministry particularly entrusted to them. By the laying on of hands, as will occur today, the first deacons were ordained for the Church. While the ministry of the deacons would be different from that of the apostles, they both would be complementary to each other in order that the word of God would continue to be proclaimed.

That word, shared by the apostles and the deacons, is basic to all men and women as indicated by Jeremiah so clearly, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I dedicated you. It is an essential word spoken to all of us, no matter what our vocation may be, which reminds us of our basic identity as created in the image and likeness of God and called by Him for a particular relationship with Him.

Every single person is known by God before being formed by Him in the womb and known by Him before being born. We cannot change the person God has created us to be. We must accept, love and respect that person, and every other person that we encounter who has the same origin. My brothers, as deacons, that is the basic message of the Gospel which you are to proclaim in your ministry and by your lives.

As you are ordained this morning, it is on the day on which we remember the terrible portrayal of violence which occurred 20 years ago. Sept. 11 was a day that expressed the original sin of humanity that flies in the face of the words of Jeremiah and places Gods creation and the gift of human life out of His hands and into hands which intend to destroy it. We saw the evil that can occur through the boldness of sin manifesting itself in human pride. We also saw, in the days to follow, the goodness that can manifest itself through the virtue exercised by men and women following their call as made in the image and likeness of God.

Unfortunately, 20 years later, with all the good that is in our world, we still experience the evil that can come from the human heart by not recognizing who we are as made in Gods image and likeness with a particular identity and dignity proper to us. The horrible situation of Afghanistan, the political unrest within our world, the lack of respect for people, their particular race and the ability to condone the taking of an unborn childs life called into existence by God are but some of the manifestations of evil among us.

There is still the inclination not to accept who we are, and others, as created by God with a particular purpose and identity, but to re-create ourselves in the image of likeness of our own preference. Two opposing forces present themselves. One places political correctness as the supreme good, proclaiming that it was not God who formed us in the womb and gave us an identity but we who form ourselves. The other is a warrior attempt to correct this position, but which makes the warrior into God Himself, deciding how God created you.

Francis and Mark, as you are ordained deacons today, it is the Gospel just proclaimed which is at the center of your service. It is the Gospel of humility and warrants repeating: You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be the great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His love as a ransom for the many (Matt 20:25b-28). The virtue of humility goes hand-in-hand with the service you are to carry out as deacons.

Humility is something that is often misunderstood, and an unhealthy understanding of it is not beneficial to us. The proper understanding of humility not only deepens our relationship with God, but is the very foundation of it. In reality, humility is part of the life of God Himself who has made us in His image and likeness. Not to be humble is not to live as God.

The word, humility is derived from the Latin word, humilis, which means near to the ground humus. Its basic meaning is that we have not given existence to ourselves but reminds us that God has given us existence from the earth He created. To be humble means to have our feet on the ground and to recognize that our existence, and that of every person, revolves around our relationship with God who created us precisely for that relationship.

It is especially significant to realize that God, the author of all creation, showed Himself humble in the person of Jesus Christ. The richness of the great hymn from Saint Pauls Letter to the Philippians is one that can never be exhausted and one that needs to always be reflected in our service. It is the Magna Carta of the virtue of humility which tells us that we must have the same attitude of Jesus Christ, who, though he was in the form of God did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, He humbled Himself becoming obedient to death, even death on the Cross (Phil 2:68). These words are the heart of the Order of the Diaconate and so at the heart of Holy Orders in general.

Continually in the Gospels, Jesus calls us to humility and invites us to Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Mt 11:29). He gives us the sterling example of humility when He washes His apostles feet at the Last Supper, which is the sign of service for all those in Holy Orders

During this month of September, we celebrate many feasts in honor of our Blessed Mother. Her Nativity, her Most Holy Name and her Sorrows are a part of this month during which you are ordained. Mary presents to us an example of humility paralleled to her Sons. Always in the background, she rejoices in the relationship she has with God which is what brings her joy and exalts her above all others. Humility deepened Marys relationship with God.

My brothers, as you are ordained deacons today, continue to preach the Gospel in a world that needs to hear the Gospel more than it needs anything else. Be at the service of those who need your ministry by proclaiming the word of God in word, and in action by the example of your lives. Always strive to help others realize their identity as made in the image and likeness of God with a particular purpose and dignity which only God can bestow upon us. It is important to understand that one of the qualities of humility is that we have no pretension about ourselves and that others are able to feel at home in our presence. This is why Jesus invites others to come to him, because He is humble of heart.

May you know always the joy of the special gift of Holy Orders which you receive today in the diaconate. May your service to others help you better understand the unique identity which God has given to you. May we all realize that our lives are gifts from God and that they only make sense through a living relationship with Him. He is the supreme good and through Him, especially in the person of Jesus Christ, we come to know the fullness of life. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you (Jer 1:4-5).

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Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you - Florida Catholic

Violence against women is a manifestation of an eternal war for power.

The dominance of patriarchy is the dark mark of an atavistic struggle, through which women try to conquer their independence each time with better weapons and build a life of freedom. This eternal confrontation is not about customs or traditions, but about a guerrilla war waged by one sector of the population armed with all kinds of weapons: legal, physical and doctrinal against another that possesses only the certainty of its reason. And so the centuries have passed.

To begin to understand the scale of this system of domination, it is necessary to go beyond appearances and measure the enormous impact on the lives of more than half the worlds population. This not only translates into apparent violence in the form of physical, social and psychological abuse, whose constant presence impedes the full development of girls, adolescents and adult women, but also in the underhanded way in which they are condemned to economic dependence thanks to the harmful influence of a distorted vision of motherhood and family, marked by illegitimate authority.

From such a scheme of historical injustice, it is understandable how societies tolerate abuse, torture, marginalisation and extreme cruelty against women just because they are women. A glance at the statistics is enough to show how fragile their status is and how they are prevented from achieving full control over their lives and bodies. In underdeveloped countries, this reality is overwhelming and paints an aberrant picture of the feminine as weak physically and intellectually and naturally subordinate, both in legal and religious doctrines.

Hence, every attempt to advance and clear the way for the full development of the female sector has encountered the greatest obstacles, even from within its own sphere. The fact that, having found it necessary to conquer every bit of freedom by breaking often violently religious, social and legal obstacles in order to occupy a place in the real world, they have been mocked, rejected and condemned, is reason enough to reflect on this absurd power structure. In the domestic, work and social spheres, women still occupy a space subject to condescension and political correctness rather than full entitlement.

This portrayal is not a distorted view of reality. It is evident in the aberrant figures of femicides, kidnappings, disappearances, trafficking and rapes against girls, adolescents and women, crimes that go unpunished and rarely, if ever, reach the stage of investigation and conviction. They are the ones who are absent in societies indifferent to their condition as human beings, with all that this implies in terms of respect, autonomy and capabilities. They are the ones who have experienced firsthand the contempt of their peers and the abandonment of society.

Underlying this drama of injustice is the eternal struggle for power. From it emerges the enormous machinery of patriarchy, whose pre-eminence rests on an authority imposed by force and the enormous advantages of having at its disposal a whole contingent of women capable of contributing, by the force of tradition, their unpaid work, their creative wealth and their endless resistance to pain. The struggle to claim their rights faces for obvious reasons fierce resistance.

The place of women in society is still a pending issue.

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The absent ones - PRESSENZA International News Agency

Those impossible-to-ignore and hard-to-define white " evangelicals" have, for decades, been the largest and most dynamic sector in U.S. religion. Are we finally witnessing an evangelical crack-up as so long anticipated -- and desired -- by liberal critics?

That's a big theme for the media to affirm or deny.

To begin, The Religion Guy is well aware that millions of these conservative Protestants quietly attend weekly worship, join Bible and prayer groups, try to help those in need, fund national and foreign missions and are oblivious to discussions of this sort on the national level.

For years we've seen a telltale slide of membership and baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention, that massive and stereotypical evangelical denomination. At the same time, its clear (follow the work of Ryan Burge for background) that many of those Southern Baptists have simply moved to independent, nondenominational evangelical megachurches of various kinds.

But more than numbers, analysts are pondering insults to cultural stature, which greatly affect any movement's legitimacy, respect, impact and appeal to potential converts, especially with younger adults.

The Scopes Trial to forbid teaching of Darwinian evolution nearly a century ago continues to shape perceptions of evangelicalism and its fundamentalist wing, especially due to the fictionalized 1955 play and 1960 movie "Inherit the Wind." No doubt ongoing evangelical enthusiasm for Donald Trump has a similar negative impact among his critics, but this is not merely a political story but involves evangelicalism's internal dynamics. The Trump era exacerbatesdivisions that already existed despite unity in belief.

Turn to former GetReligion writer Mark Kellner, who is already making his mark (pun intended) as the new "faith and family" reporter for theWashington Times. Here is an essential recent read: After scandals, is evangelical Christianity's image damaged?"

The immediate cause behind the question was an odd little incident that spoke volumes, the sacking of Daniel Darling as spokesman for National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). Realize that to a great extent trade shows for evangelical broadcasters and for retailers, plus events surrounding the Fellowship Foundation's Presidential Prayer Breakfast, have functioned as the major gatherings for influencers and celebrities in the motley evangelical movement.

Darling's sin was to tell MSNBC he got the COVID-19 vaccine and considers that a good idea for other Christians. The Guy caught that interview and confesses Darling's words were so mild, and so respectful of evangelical anti-vaxxers, that there seemed to be no news. But then NRB handed Darling a demotion at lower pay so he left. For background, see Darling's recent interview (Fired After Getting Vaccinated And Encouraging Others to Do So) with the always-interesting Emma Green of theAtlantic.

Whatever the back-and-forthing, Darling was penalized for ignoring NRB "neutrality" on vaccination, in an unpalatable example of conservative "cancel culture" and "political correctness." As Kellner further observed, this followed unseemly scandals at such evangelical powerhouses as Liberty Universityand Willow Creek church.That's but the beginning of the recent public squalor of evangelical hypocrites and sexual predators.

Then there's the disillusionment of hyper-popular Bible teacher Beth Moore,and the remarkable private 2020 letter to Southern Baptist executives from the Rev. Russell Moore (no relation), leaked after he resigned as head of the SBCs national Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.Moore lamented the denomination's moral failures on sexual abuse of youths and women, and also on treatment of racial minorities and immigrants.

Darling, a bit player in that protest letter, was formerly on Moore's staff. Commenting on the NRB fuss in a recent email-only newsletter, Moore marveled that a life-saving medical advance "is now considered controversial in our subculture" and recalled hosting evangelical radio whose callers were far more interested in "scaremongering" than, say, how to make evangelism more effective. He sees great damage from evangelical media "marketers of rage" who inflame controversy rather than offer nuanced discussion of current moral problems.

In subscribers-only columns forTheDispatch.com, commentator David French also frequently grieves over evangelical trends and leaders. (Though he's anti-Trump, it's important to recognize that French is strongly old-style on evangelical theology and in his past strategic legal efforts defending religious liberty.)

As Kellner observes, the overriding issue has become "how evangelical Christianity is perceived in an increasingly secular culture" when its Gospel outreach faces far more resistance than in the Billy Graham days.

A final question: Aare the recent events transient hiccups or a new direction that demands substantial analysis?This is, of course, a question that has been asked several times in recent decades.

[Disclosure: The Religion Guy was the news editor of the evangelical magazineChristianity Todaybefore covering the beat forTimemagazine and The Associated Press.]

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Are we finally witnessing the long-anticipated (by journalists) evangelical crack-up? - GetReligion

Twenty years after the carnage of 9/11, I find myself troubled with the nation I have fought for and profoundly angry with its leaders.

Eleven U.S. Marines, a Navy corpsman, and a soldier were killed by suicide bombers amid our evacuation from Afghanistan. Our nation's leaders, in an attempt to conceal how disastrous the evacuation was, are listing these deaths as combat fatalities. But the actual cause of death is betrayal. During the evacuation, these soldiers were ordered not to take normal security measures for protecting themselves against IEDs. Instead, they were told to rely on the deal the Biden administration had made with the Taliban for IED protection. We will never know whether the Taliban allowed the suicide bombers through their lines or simply failed to check them. But we do know that these U.S. troops were ordered to rely on the Taliban for screening out IEDs, and that that deal cost them their lives.

All soldiers, Navy personnel, and Marines understand the risks of combat, and they are trained, equipped, and motivated to successfully close with and destroy the enemy. They never volunteered to review documents and screen panic-stricken hordes pressing to enter Kabul airport, where people were literally trampled to death in the chaos. Our leaders misused and abused these thirteen military personnel. The arrangement with the Taliban cost them their lives. They had no ability to defend themselves.

One gold star parent told President Biden that he had blood on his hands. That is clearly true. But the Marine Corps shares his guilt. So does General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command. Our military leaders seem less concerned with our ability to win in an armed conflict than with woke political consciousness. Meanwhile, China is dramatically expanding its influence, growing more belligerent, and stressing combat effectiveness.

I served as a Marine infantry officer in Vietnam. Two of my sons, both Marine officers, saw combat in Iraq. Together we have completed six combat tours. All of us have combat decorations. We have always been proud of being Marines and serving our country. That pride is now mixed with disgust for the degrading behavior of our nations leaders in the Afghanistan decisions of recent weeks. Their ineptitude, deceit, and callousness make it very difficult for my sons or myself to encourage others to serve. When we served, our priorities as leaders were clearly defined. After this evacuation, it appears that combat priorities have been replaced by public relations goals.

President Biden has argued that no matter when we left Afghanistan, it was certain to be messy. On this at least, hes clearly right. His incompetent team would have ensured a disastrous evacuation regardless of the timing. This explains Biden's urgency in shifting attention to domestic issues.

What happens next? Will an honest investigation to get answers, assign accountability, and learn the right lessons take place? Or will we deny reality and claim the numbers of people evacuated indicate some sort of implausible victory? Will we fire the obvious losers and political sycophants? Will we demand that our military focus on combat effectiveness and put aside political correctness?

We need to stop talking about our great militaryin my family, we already know its character from direct experienceand demand great military leadership. Our current military leaders appear to be ill-suited to leading troops in battle, and that, at the end of the day, is what we need them to do.

On the international front, weve suffered long-term damage to both our military and diplomatic credibility. The fighting in Afghanistan is now over for us. But only the theater of the struggle has changedthere remain terror organizations, some of whose members are almost certainly among the Afghans we evacuated.

I remember vividly the shame I felt watching Saigon fall and the panicked attempts of thousands of Vietnamese desperate to flee. Afghanistan is worse. There is nothing that looks, smells, or feels like victory, or even dignity, in our exit. Joe Biden isnt the only man responsible for this 20-year slow-motion car wreck, but he bears full responsibility for the inexcusable way it has ended. Every country in the region will now draw its own conclusions about American reliability, or unreliability, as China rises to fill the vacuum we left.

Meanwhile, back at home, if we continue to teach our young people that America is fundamentally racist and irredeemably flawed, we will reap exactly what we sow. Why would any person of intelligence and character put his or her life at risk to defend a country controlled by a leadership class that continually derides or ignores tens of millions of Americans, along with their needs, their convictions, and their concerns?

Heres a modest proposal: Let our pundits and our political and cultural elites fight the next war. The rest of us can watch from the sidelines.

Joseph Mahoney commanded a Marine infantry company in I Corps, Republic of Vietnam, 1967-68.

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9/11, Afghanistan, and the Next War | Joseph Mahoney - First Things

Following Donald Trumps defeat in the 2020 election, and after the bloody Jan. 6 riot that Trump instigated, the 45th U.S. president immediately lost many of his ties to world leaders he once called friends. However, Brazils far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who has modeled himself in Trumps image, sought to keep the bromance alive.

Thats something former President Trump, months after officially departing the White House, hasnt forgotten, and has expressed some interest in returning the favor.

This summer, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, Trump told confidants that hes open to publicly endorsing Bolsonaros reelection, potentially at a mega-rally in Brazil where he and Bolsonaro could appear together side-by-side, to rail against what they each deem undesired election outcomes. Bolsonaro, who is widely expected to decisively fail in his reelection bid next year, has been preemptively spreading groundless claims of election fraud, a strategy jarringly reminiscent of Trumps failed coup in the United States.

Whether Trump ends up visiting his Brazilian peer soon or not (the U.S. government issued a level four advisory for those interested in visiting Brazil), the links between Bolsonaro-world and Trumpland remain firmly intact.

President Bolsonaros son Eduardo, who serves as a member of the Brazilian parliament and has been described in the U.S. press as the Donald Trump Jr. of Brazil, recently met with Trump, according to a post on the Brazilian lawmakers Instagram account. Last month, the younger Bolsonaro posted pictures of himself at Trump Tower standing next to the former president. Bolsonaro, whose infant daughter posed alongside the ex-president in an autographed MAGA ball cap, said he took the opportunity to invite [Trump] to come to our country when he sees fit, maybe in a CPAC-Brazil.

Trump apparently did not make it to Brazils version of the annual U.S. conservative summit, although Donald Trump Jr. spoke to the conference via video. CPAC Brasil 2021, which was hosted in Brazils capital city of Braslia early this month, is one of several foreign spin-offs of the stateside conference, which is put on by the American Conservative Union. The ACU is fronted by Trump-aligned lobbyist Matt Schlapp, who is also a friend to the Bolsonaro political dynasty.

It was on the way back from that trip that a delegation of American conservatives, including Trumps former senior adviser and spokesman Jason Miller, was briefly detained by Brazilian law enforcement as they attempted to fly out of the country on Tuesday. The incident came on Brazils independence day, as Bolsonaro urged his supporters to defend his administration by flooding into the streets of Braslia, as well as other major cities

A day before he was detained, Miller appeared on former top Trump aide Steve Bannons podcast to praise Bolsonaro, whom he described as a very impressive man.

In a lot of ways, President Bolsonaro has the same superpowers that President Trump does, Miller said.

Gettr, Millers attempt at a pro-Trump social media platform, has proven especially popular with conservative Brazilian supporters of President Bolsonaro, according to a recent report by Stanford Universitys Internet Observatory. As a part of that study, researchers looked at the frequency of flag emojis in Gettr users profiles: Brazilian flags, affixed to 11,350 profiles, were second only to American flags, found on 20,650 accounts. The flag metric is an imprecise measurement of the national demographics of Gettrs roughly 1.5 million followers but nonetheless points to a notably large and vocal community of pro-Bolsonaro users on the social media app. Their presence in such numbers, Stanford researchers wrote, is likely due at least in part to the support of Bolsonaros son Flavio, who announced he was joining the platform back in July.

The pugnacious Brazilian president has returned the favor, courting Miller with a high-level meeting during the Brazil trip. Miller met with a barefoot Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo, according to pictures posted on Twitter by fellow attendee Matthew Tyrmand, a board member of pro-Trump conservative activist James OKeefes Project Veritas group. During the meeting, Bolsonaro and his son held up a Project Veritas shirt.

He wants to be sort of the South American branch of Trumpism, if you will, said Gustavo Ribeiro, the founder of Brazilian news website The Brazilian Report.

Bolsonaros critics had accused him of using the protests to stage a coup or his own version of a Jan. 6-style attack on government institutions. While protesters broke through some police barricades the night before, the pro-Bolsonaro rallies were stymied by low attendance and a heightened law enforcement presence.

Eduardo Bolsonaro has become an emissary between his father and the American far-right. In 2019, the younger Bolsonaro joined a sort of international populist movement founded by Bannon, as the representative for South America.

Andre Pagliarini, an associate professor at Hampden-Sydney College who studies modern Brazilian political history, said the Bolsonaros affiliate themselves with Trump associates like Bannon in an attempt to get closer to Trump.

Its that lingering Trump dust that is still on Bannon that appeals to them, Pagliarini said.

Eduardo Bolsonaro has even courted less internationally known Trump allies in the United States like MyPillow CEO and staunch Trump ally Mike Lindell. In August, Bolsonaro spoke at Lindells ill-fated cyber-symposium event, a bumbling attempt to prove the false conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Before his speech, Bolsonaro handed Lindell a red MAGA hat he claimed came from the twice-impeached former U.S. president.

Bolsonaro will win unless its stolen byguess what?the machines, Bannon said while the younger Bolsonaro was on-stage.

The machines! Lindell agreed.

For his part, the Trumpist pillow magnate hasnt gone all in on Bolsonaro just yet. Lindell told The Daily Beast on Thursday night that he is currently not planning on sinking any money or resources into anything Brazil-relatedbecause he is working to launch new fronts in his audit crusade in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Alabama, Colorado.

Bolsonaro is expected to lose his 2022 reelection campaign to left-wing former Brazilian president Luiz Incio Lula da Silva. Ahead of that projected defeat, Bolsonaro is bringing Trump and the GOPs baseless allegations of massive voter fraud to Brazil, part of an effort to claim victory even if he loses.

Here is a network of denialism in the United States thats established after Trump loses that they can kind of plug themselves into, Pagliarini said.

Bolsonaro has already adapted American culture-war fights for Brazil, according to Ribeiro, embracing fights over gun control and supposed COVID-19 cure hydroxychloroquine.

Bolsonaro was also an early promoter of ivermectin, the anti-parasitic drug thats been embraced as an unproven COVID-19 treatment by anti-vaccine groups in the United States.

We dont have a Second Amendment here, but still they use arguments very similar to what Republicans would use in the United States about the freedom to bear weapons, Ribeiro said.

Some pro-Trump media outlets have embraced Bolsonaro as a figure Bannon has called the Trump of the tropics. QAnon social media channels eagerly followed the Brazilian protests, casting them as ordinary Brazilians reclaiming their freedom from liberal elites. Right-wing blog The Gateway Pundit argued that pro-Bolsonaro protesters and Trump supporters were all part of a single global battle against so-called corruption.

This isnt the first time meetings between Bolsonaro and Trumpworld have made headlines. In March 2020, a meeting between Trump and Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago became a prominent coronavirus hotspot in the United States after several Bolsonaro aides tested positive for the virus.

Trump has praised Bolsonaros style many times when he was in office, and loves how Bolsonaro goes after the media in his country and political correctness, said a source close to Trump whos spoken to him about Bolsonaro several times. But the [former] president has been sure to point out that he is better looking than Bolsonaro at least twice when Ive spoken to him.

Link:

Inside the Bromance Between the 'Trump of the Tropics' and the Original - The Daily Beast

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, The American Prospect gave cautious support to striking back against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, while warning about the risks of a wider war and emphasizing the need to preserve our own civil liberties at home. We opposed the Iraq War but insisted there were circumstances when the use of American power was justifiable. On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we devoted an issue to the lost decadethe squandered opportunity after 9/11 to use the ensuing surge of solidarity and patriotism to deal with the real challenges the nation faced (and still faces). Not all the articles that appeared in the Prospect reflect a single viewpoint; the Prospect has also served as a platform for debate. Here are some excerpts from a few of the many articles we published over the past 20 years:

(October 22, 2001)

By Robert Kuttner

There is a terrible risk that we will overreach or underreach; that we will target the wrong enemy and inflame hundreds of millions of ordinary Muslims without wiping out terrorists If ever there were a moment to engage and debate complexities, it is this one.

By Paul Starr

We are embarked upon a war that has no clear limits and may require deep engagement in a region of the world that is strange and hostile to us. Our involvement there could backfire. The war might spread to neighboring countries. To avert these risks, we ought to keep the grander visions of the conflict in check. We must not compound the tragedy of September 11 by undertaking a jihad of our own.

By Harold Meyerson

Today, proportionality is both a moral and a strategic concern. As we learned in Vietnam, you dont win a war in which public sentiment is crucial by destroying a villageor a nation, or a regionin order to save it.

By Michael Walzer

[Terrorism] aims at a general vulnerability. Kill these people in order to terrify those. A relatively small number of dead victims makes for a very large number of living and frightened hostages. This is the ramifying evil of terrorism: not just the killing of innocent people but also the intrusion of fear into everyday life, the violation of private purposes, the insecurity of public spaces, the endless coerciveness of precaution But when moral justification is ruled out, the way is opened for ideological apology. In parts of the European and American left, there has long existed a political culture of excuses.

By Paul Berman

The present conflict seems to me to be following the twentieth-century pattern exactly, with one variation: the antiliberal side right now, instead of Communist, Nazi, Catholic, or Fascist, happens to be radical Arab nationalist and Islamic fundamentalist The genuine solution to these attacks can come about in only one way, which is by following the same course we pursued against the Fascist Axis and the Stalinists. The Arab radical and Islamist movements have to be, in some fashion or other, crushed. Or else they have to be tamed into something civilized and acceptable, the way that some of the old Stalinist parties have agreed to shrink into normal political organizations of a democratic sort.

By Robert Kuttner, Harold Meyerson, and Paul Starr

(September 30, 2002)

As Congress debates war with Iraq and the new Bush doctrine, it must look beyond November and beyond Baghdad and ask if the direction the administration wants to take America in actually will bring us the security Bush promises. The administrations unilateral determination to overthrow Hussein is already taking us down a dangerous path. Overthrowing the system of international law and security that has worked for the past half-century is more dangerous still.

By Paul Starr, Robert Kuttner, and Michael Tomasky

(February 21, 2005)

In reaction against Bushs embrace of Wilsonian rhetoric, some liberals may be tempted to go to the opposite extreme, downplaying any democratic aims of American foreign policy and asserting only the goals of peace and stability. That is not our view. In charting an alternative to Bushs foreign policy, liberals should uphold liberal aims. But those aims are not well served by a policy that has discarded the framework of international law and institutions built up since World War II and has made American power appear illegitimate in the eyes even of traditional allies President Bush has been wrong, often calamitously so, about many things, but he is right that America must do all it can to prevent another 9-11. When facing a substantial, immediate, and provable threat, the United States has both the right and the obligation to strike preemptively and, if need be, unilaterally against terrorists or states that support them The liberal alternative to Bush is not to lessen our power but to listen to the world and, in the process, to add to the power that we and other liberal democracies can marshal to strengthen our security and freedom and to get on with the forgotten agenda of protecting the global environment and alleviating the poverty and misery that are still the fate of hundreds of millions of the worlds people.

By Sam Rosenfeld and Matthew Yglesias

(October 23, 2005)

Most liberal hawks are willing to admit only that they made a mistake in trusting the president and his team to administer the invasion and occupation competently The incompetence critique is, in short, a dodgea way for liberal hawks to acknowledge the obviously grim reality of the war without rethinking any of the premises that led them to support it in the first place An honest reckoning with this wars failure does not threaten the future of liberal interventionism. Instead, it is liberal interventionisms only hope.

By Tara McKelvey

(October 23, 2008)

A quiet revolution in the U.S. military has resurrected Vietnam-era strategies to fight the war on terrorism. Retired Lt. Col. John Nagl makes counterinsurgency seem so appealing that its easy to forget its dark side.

By Michelle Goldberg

(October 27, 2009)

One of the few remaining rationales for maintaining the occupation is protecting Afghan women. Is that enough? The answer depends on whether one believes that the American military can be a force for humanitarianism. After the last eight years, thats a hard faith to sustain. Staying in Afghanistan seems indefensible. The trouble is, so does leaving.

By Adam Serwer

(June 3, 2010)

The [Obama] administrations studious avoidance of associating terrorism with Islam isnt political correctness run amok. It represents one of the few points of divergence between the Obama administration and its predecessor on matters of national securitya deliberate effort to narrow the scope of the war on terror to a fight against al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups.

(September 2011)

By The Editors

Ten years after the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon, the United States is in bad shape, but our problems have little to do with what al-Qaeda did to us. Americas troubles stem from what the country has done to itselfor rather, from what our political leaders have done with the nations power and resources The patriotism that swept America after September 11 could have helped forge a genuine moment of national unity and common purpose. Instead, the Bush administration and other Republicans used it as an opportunity to vilify liberals who opposed the push for war in Iraq or the need for wider government surveillance The American public is ready for a rapid drawdown of troops [in Afghanistan] and ambitious nation-building at home. In a larger sense, bin Ladens death can provide closure to the 9/11 decade. We never should have lost a decadeand we must not lose the next onebecause of 9/11.

By Rick Perlstein

We had heard Bush when he declared, We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them. It turned out, however, that this was not the fight the Bushies were spoiling for.

By Kim Scheppele

From the end of World War II to the start of the global war on terror, international law provided crucial support for the promotion of human rights around the world. But the response to the September 11 attacks has had a profound and little-appreciated impact on international law with devastating global consequences for human rights, democracy, and constitutionalism.

By Jamelle Bouie

(May 2, 2012)

If anything, the beginning of the end in Afghanistan will help Obama build his leadership case against Mitt Romney.

By Robert Kuttner

(September 11, 2014)

There are key differences between September 11, 2001, and September 11, 2014. The first is that America is not under direct assault. The second is that we at least have a president who is reality-based, not prone to messianic interventionism, and who makes war only reluctantly. But in the thirteen years since the first 9/11, the Middle East has become even more unstable. And the face of radical Islam has become more hydra-headed. To say that this reality is, in large part, the legacy of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush does not make todays policy choices any easier.

By Karen J. Greenberg

(November 30, 2020)

Shuttering Guantanamo, long overdue, offers the chance to bring closure to the 9/11 era.

By Emran Feroz

(July 14, 2021)

What started as a counterterrorism operation led to wholesale cooperation with and empowerment of rapacious warlords, corrupt politicians, and drug barons.

By Rozina Ali

(August 10, 2021)

The Afghanistan War may be ending, but the age of war drones on. We may not be barreling cities with bombs anymore, but inflicting law and order at home and around the world, it turns out, still results in physical and moral carnage.

Continued here:

The Prospect Responds to 9/11and to the Wars That Followed - The American Prospect