October 3, 2001
TALK TO DEBATE USE OF MILITARY FORCE
LA CROSSE, Wis—Three nationally renowned figures will debate: "The Ethical Use of Military Force in Response to Terrorism," Wednesday. Oct. 17 in the Fine Arts Center Main Theatre.
The 7:30 p.m. debate is sponsored by the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership. Admission is free and open to the public. Tickets for main floor seating are required and may be obtained at the Murphy Center Reception Desk at Viterbo University, Monday-Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
On stage will be: Robert Froehlke, former U.S. Secretary of the Army for the Nixon Administration; George Lopez, Director of Policy Studies at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace Studies at Notre Dame, and Rania Masri, founder of Iraq Action Coalition and board member of Peace Action, a pacifist organization.
Richard Kyte, director of the ethics institute, will serve as moderator. He said the debate was scheduled in response to the New York disaster at the World Trade Center and the looming prospect of military intervention against terrorists and the countries which harbor such factions.
"There is a tremendous amount of anxiety and fear as we enter some very uncertain times," Kyte said. "This presentation will allow our students and others to learn more about this very complex issue about how others propose we respond to terrorists and their threats."
The debate is expected to generate a wide spectrum of opinion.
Lopez most recently authored an essay in journal America in which he advocates national responses to the September 11 tragedy which are "morally defensible and have passed the toughest ethical scrutiny." He is also ombudsman for Amnesty International-U.S., and the recent co-author of The Sanctions Decade: Assessing the UN Strategies in the 1990’s. Lopez’s scholarly work in the area of peace studies has appeared in Chitty’s Law Journal, Human Rights Quarterly, and the International Journal of Human Rights and The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Froehlke, in addition to serving as secretary of the Army under the Nixon Administration from 1971-73, was assistant secretary of defense from 1969-71. Under his direction, the remaining Army troops were redeployed from Vietnam and recruiting was converted to an all-volunteer basis. After resigning from government service, he returned to the private sector serving as presidents of Sentry Insurance and later, IDS Mutual Fund Group. 1n 1999, he was on the Viterbo campus to participate in the university’s symposium, "Retelling the Stories of Vietnam."
Masri, who holds a doctorate in forestry, has taught at North Carolina State University. However, it is her advocacy of changes in American policy overseas, including opposition to continuing sanctions against Iraq, which has resulted in exposure in many national media forums. She has debated on NPR’s Talk of the Nation with Ray Suarez on several occasions and her interviews have appeared nationally on CNN, ABC National News and Fox News Channel. In print, Christian Science Monitor, the Cairo Times and the Middle East Report have interviewed her. She is a member of Peace Action, a group which advocates global nuclear disarmament and an end to international arms sales.
Masri is a bilingual speaker of Arabic and English and holds dual U.S. and Lebanese citizenship.