On Oct. 7, the United States began an air attack on Afghanistan, targeting the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. The Saint Louis University community, as it has been doing for the past month, has been reacting to these acts of terrorism and war.
University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., addressed the issue in his monthly message.
“In the days since the terrorists’ attacks, our SLU community has come together to cope with these terrible events: gathering in prayer for the victims and their families and for the terrorists, offering emotional and spiritual support to those affected-especially our international students, giving generously to the Red Cross and other disaster relief funds,” the e-mail stated.
Campus Minister Harry O’Rourke wasn’t surprised that the U.S. began the military strikes. “An event of this nature calls for a lot of reflection,” he said. “Nationalism and patriotism should not become a new religion.”
O’Rourke expressed humanitarian concerns for all of those who died on Sept. 11, all who survived, those Americans who will lose their jobs and the families of all those affected. However, he also spoke about concerns for all of the people in Afghanistan who were suffering from poverty before the attacks even began.
The attacks do not fit the normal definition of war-a government fighting another government, O’Rourke said. “This is a war on terrorism . an undefined enemy,” he said.
O’Rourke also addressed the attacks from a moral and ethical standpoint. “The Catholic Church is very broad in its addressing of situations of war and violence,” he said. “It’s not unpatriotic, heretical or cowardly . It’s a courageous and prophetic stance to call for peace in the face of violence against us.”
Political Science professor Brenda Markovitz also said that the attacks were expected. “There has been so much pressure to support military attacks,” she said.
Markovitz seems impressed with the way that the military is handling the attacks. “They seem to be acting with caution to go after terrorists and not just civilians,” she said. To ensure this, 90 percent of the bombs being dropped are smart bombs, which typically hit their targets, according to Markovitz.
“In an effort to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, we are dropping food supplies,” she noted.
Markovitz accepted the fact that the University community is not reacting as strongly to the attacks as they did to the events of Sept. 11. She accredits the reactions to the fact that the attacks are occurring halfway around the world, that students are overloaded from the events of the past month and that the media is not as real as it was on Sept. 11th.
“We saw the World Trade Center as dramatic and horrifying,” she said. Markovitz thinks that the media is not showing as much violence.
“Now, we see the same thing we saw of the Gulf War: Nothing.”
Mike Cappel, president of the Student Government Association, said that he thinks most students expected the United States to react to the Taliban. “I think that we were all expecting an armed effort,” he said.
Cappel’s main concern is the student body: “I’m just continually making sure there is peace and unity on campus.”
According to Cappel, a lot of students on campus are overwhelmed with the media from Sept. 11, and that is why they aren’t paying as much attention to these attacks.
He thinks that SLU students, as part of a Jesuit community, might be more in tune with the feelings of “Is this right?” than students of a state school might be questioning.
As an outlet to deal with and pray for the attacks on Afghanistan, a candlelight vigil was held in the Quad on Sunday night for students and other members of the SLU community before the 10 p.m. mass.
