WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

The Baltimore Sun

The worse the death and destruction gets in Iraq, the better business gets for private military contractors.

Take, for example, the recent contract award to manage the U.S. Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (Logcap), which mainly gives logistical support to troops in Iraq. DynCorp International forecasts $5 billion in business from the deal.

The previous Logcap contract holder, KBR-Halliburton of Houston, saw its overall revenues soar to $7.1 billion during its Iraq golden years.

The Los Angeles Times reports that U.S.-paid private contractors now outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq. The government is placing an enormous amount of wartime responsibility in civilian hands, and it troubles us that the more the war effort falters, the higher the profits seem to go.

We don't doubt there are benefits to private contracting on the battlefield, but we question whether they outweigh the financial, psychological and moral costs. By outsourcing its responsibility, Washington is helping feed a booming war-futures market.

- The Dallas Morning News

We had nearly forgotten it, this famous motu proprio that had been announced several months ago. But in the Vatican nothing is lost. Wheels are turning, slowly but surely. Last year, the announcement of an official return of the traditional Latin liturgy piqued the emotions of many faithful Catholics, in particular in France, where large battalions of traditionalists are on the move. We know the formula: Lex orandi, lex credendi. Let us be clear: What worries the conciliar faithful (which we count ourselves among) is not Latin, or thuribles, or little bells, but the view of the outside world of the majority of the defenders of the traditional rite. The rite of Pope Pius V was that of a church that believed itself to be the sole possessor of the Truth. Forty years after Vatican II, this position is intolerable.

- Temoignage Chretien (Christian Witness), a French weekly

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