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Two Wrongs

(1) NATO’s worryingly inadequate and incredible shrinking performance in Afghanistan (2) NATO’s determination to go ahead with wargames in Georgia Best possible absurd justification: the Georgia exercises are training for Afghan missions! Is anyone else filled with concern by this turn . . . . Continue Reading »

Stand Up and Be Counted

As James observes, it’s good to be back in business. And while he appropriately thanks Jody and Joe for bringing us aboard the First Things mothership, I want to thank him for doing what I am far to lazy to do: set up and maintain a blog. It was a pleasure to contribute to PoMoCo at . . . . Continue Reading »

Bearing Witness
in a Time of War

The following homily was delivered by Fr. Neuhaus at the annual Memorial Mass of the Military Vicariate at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on the Feast of the Ascension, 2007. The Scripture texts just read are for this day, the Feast of the Ascension of Our . . . . Continue Reading »

Moral Clarity in a Time of War

In Book Three of Tolstoy’s epic, War and Peace, the hero, Pierre Bezukhov, arrives at the battlefield of Borodino to find that the fog of war has descended, obscuring everything he had expected to be clear. There is no order, there are no familiar patterns of action, all is contingency. He . . . . Continue Reading »

Letter from Budapest

Murderous cruise missiles crash into factories, office buildings, farm houses, all just across the border in Serbia, while on the other side of the frontier twelve million Hungarians stare apprehensively into their television sets thinking, “There but for the grace of God goes Hungary.” Yet, . . . . Continue Reading »

The Myth of the Civil War

Year after year we reap new harvests of Civil War literature, despite the admonition of some historians that the subject has been exhausted. We tell and retell the story of the Civil War, hoping through vicarious participation to gain a better sense of our national identity, vocation, and destiny. . . . . Continue Reading »

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