U.S. counters Vatican’s anti-war stance
Ken Dilanian
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
ROME — In an unusual effort to
counter increasingly fierce criticism
by the Vatican against a possible war
in Iraq, the U.S. government hosted
a conservative theologian here Mon
day who argued that a military strike
against Saddam Hussein would meet
the definition of a “just war” in
Catholic doctrine.
“Public authorities are responsible
for one supreme duty: to protect the
lives and the rights of their people,”
said Michael Novak, a Catholic
thinker and a scholar at the Ameri
can Enterprise Institute in Washing
ton, speaking to an international
group of journalists invited by the
U.S. Embassy.
“And no president of the United
States is going to put the United
States at risk again, knowing full well
that if there was something he could
have done and didn’t do, he would
be blamed for it forever,” he said.
Novak’s visit, which included
meetings with Vatican officials last
week, was organized at the behest of
Jim Nicholson, the U.S. ambassador
to the Holy See and a Vietnam com
bat veteran who previously chaired
the Republican National Committee.
Although both men took pains to
say that Novak was not speaking for
the U.S. government, his presence
underscored the deep split between
the Catholic Church and the Bush
administration over military action
against Iraq.
On Sunday, Pope John Paul II,
who has spoken against a possible
preemptive strike against Hussein’s
regime, dispatched an envoy to
Baghdad in a last-ditch effort to avert
conflict. A Vatican spokesman said
the trip was designed to “demon
strate to all the plea of the Holy Fa
ther in favor of peace and to help
Iraqi authorities make a serious re
flection on the duty of an effective
international commitment based on
justice and international rights.”
Hussein’s deputy prime minister,
Tariq Aziz, is expected in Rome on
Friday for a meeting with the Pope.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the
pontiff made a point of saying that
nations have a right to defend
themselves against terrorism, and
he did not criticize the subsequent
war to oust the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan.
But Iraq has been different. In a
speech to diplomats to the Vatican
last month, the Pope said, “No to
war!” His top aides have criticized
U.S. policy in explicit terms.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vati
can’s foreign minister, questioned
why the United States would want to
“irritate a billion Muslims.”
The director of Vatican Radio, the
Rev. Pasquale Borgomeo, accused
the U.S. of wanting to impose “the
hegemony of a superpower by force
and not by law.”
Official Vatican newspapers, the
content of which is approved by top
church officials, have gone further.
One contended the United States
wanted war to seize control of Iraq’s
oil supplies, and another said U.S.
policy lacked “intelligence.”
U.S. diplomats here have been
frustrated by the tone of the com
ments, which they feel resembles
the kind of knee-jerk anti-American
ism that is common in some Euro
pean intellectual circles.
However, the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops and most mainline
Protestant denominations in the
United States also have questioned
the rationale for a preemptive strike
on Iraq.
Into the debate waded Novak, a
1960s anti-Vietnam War activist
who is now better known for his
moral defense of capitalism and free
trade. He argued that if Hussein
does not agree to disarm, a preemp
tive strike against his regime fits the
definition of a “just war,” a concept
first spelled out 1,600 years ago by
St. Augustine and now enshrined in
Catholic catechism.
© 2003, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
Shuttle foam repeatedly failed, inspectors say
David Kidwell, Manny Garcia and
Curtis Morgan
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
NEW ORLEANS — A half dozen
current and former inspectors at the
Louisiana plant that built Columbia’s
external fuel tank have told The Mia
mi Herald that the equipment en
dured chronic problems with failed
adhesion of the insulating foam —
the very flaw that may have befallen
the space shuttle or contributed to
its collapse.
“Could it be safer? Of course it
could,” said one. “I can tell you I
would never go into space under
the current system — not until it’s
safer. There have been too many
cutbacks.”
Their warnings echo those de
tailed in studies that cite failings
with the space shuttle’s tank, foam
r
and tiles. At least two NASA reports
describe debris from the sprayed-on
foam insulation as the largest source
of potential damage to the shuttle’s
life-saving heat armor.
“It is estimated that 90 percent of
the Thermal Protection System
damage on the orbiter’s ‘belly’ results
from de-bonded Sprayed-On Foam
Insulation during ascent,” the 1997
study summary says.
NASA, aware of such warnings,
nevertheless believed the foam that
shot off Columbia’s fuel tank 81 sec
onds into flight Jan. 16 was not seri
ous enough to cripple the craft.
NASA relied on assessments by
Boeing Co. and its own engineers
that concluded a “safe return —
even with significant tile damage.”
Those reports — obtained by The
Herald — did not take into account
the more dire possibility that the de
bris struck the vulnerable leading
edge of the wing.
Now NASA and an outside inves
tigative panel are exploring whether
the space agency badly miscalculated.
NASA has made clear — and
made clear again Monday — that it
has come to no definitive conclu
sions as to what caused Columbia to
collapse in the sky Feb. 1, killing sev
en astronauts.
“Everything is on the table,”
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe
told reporters. “There is no favored
theory.”
Yet from moments after the shut
tle’s demise, investigators have fo
cused close scrutiny on the nearly 3
pound chunk of foam that
catapulted off the 154-foot external
fuel tank and into Columbia’s life
saving thermal tiles.
Those tiles are meant to protect
the shuttle and its passengers from
heat reaching 3,000 degrees.
NASA’s own analysis shows Colum
bia suffered escalating tempera
tures on its left side, where the de
bris could be seen thumping the
shuttle. On Monday, NASA said it
recovered part of Columbia’s left
wing, the suspect section.
Inspectors at the Michoud Space
Center plant in Louisiana, where
contractor Lockheed Martin made
the fuel tank, are raising questions
about the role foam may have played
in the disaster.
“They used to lose foam, some
times in significant amounts, with
every flight,” said one quality engi
neer who retired in 1997. “They
would send teams out to walk up
and down the beach after a launch
to pick up foam that came off.
They were never able to resolve
that issue.”
Several inspectors — interviewed
independently — said cutbacks in
the number of quality inspectors
may be linked to escalating foam
failures.
“NASA’s budget cuts have meant
we lost inspectors,” said a supervisor
who oversaw the construction of the
external tank for years. “Some
things used to have 100 percent in
spections. We just got limited, and I
think it is very unhealthy.”
© 2003, The Miami Herald. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
Services. Knight Ridder Newspapers
correspondents Joe Mozingo, Ronnie
Greene and Seth Borenstein
contributed to this report.
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