In 1998 , O'Connor questioned whether the United States ' cruise missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan were morally justifiable . In 1999 , during the Kosovo War , he used his weekly column in the archdiocesan newspaper , '' Catholic New York '' , to challenge repeatedly the morality of NATO 's bombing campaign of Yugoslavia , suggesting that it did not meet the Catholic Church 's criteria for a just War , and going so far as to ask , " Does the relentless bombing of Yugoslavia prove the power of the Western world or its weakness ? " Three years before the 9/11 attacks on New York City , O'Connor insisted that the traditional just War principles must be applied to evaluate the morality of military responses to unconventional warfare and terrorism
9/11 attacks
September 11 attacks
John O'Connor (cardinal)