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Letter to the Herald EditorPatty Fawkner SGS
In response to the article, ("Hunt down terrorists and kill them, says ex-diplomat", Sydney Morning Herald, December 18-19), Uniya in no way advocates state sponsored assassination or terrorism in any form. Duncan Campbell's essay "When the smoke clears - the morality of murdering a terrorist", was published as one of a series of essays on the threat that terrorism poses to human rights. The book, available from Uniya is called A Fair Go in an Age of Terror. Campbell's essay is more nuanced than the Herald article suggests. He canvasses a number of issues, including the ambiguous morality of a "Just War". He argues that the war against Iraq was poorly thought out, planned, and implemented. He also questions the legitimate authority for war. It is in this context that he asks an important question - whether a moral case could not be made for inflicting death on individuals or groups that plan to terrorise our community in the same way that a moral argument has been made over time for a war that involves hundred of combatants. It now seems that Duncan Campbell answers this question in the affirmative. Uniya begs to differ. Informed by the principles of the gospel and Catholic Social Teaching we do not believe that there is a moral case for a "Just Assassination".
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