It seems to me that we have a President that went to war to readily in Iraq and a candidate that makes the this one look like a dove. Therefore, a brief look at the philosophy of what constitues a just war seems in order.
Comments are, of course, accepted:
What Constitutes A Just War?
The rules of war are commonly known by their Latin name, jus ad bellum,which simply means “justice towards war.” The goal in using these criteria is to figure out where justice lies in a proposed conflict. Should we fail to justify the war, we have to say NO to entering into that conflict! There are according to Christian and Philosophical ethics five criteria (Some of these authors include Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin):
1. Proper Authority, war called by “someone” who truly has right to do so;
2. Just Cause, those whom we attack must deserve to be attacked on account of some wrong that they have done,
3. Right Intention, we intend to use our forces for good and to avoid evil
4. War as the only way to right a wrong
5. Reasonable Hope of Success
Modern Version by Alasdair Macintyre
1. The only justification for war is either self-defense (to preserve our liberty) or to preserve a people’s liberty that we have pledged to uphold.
2. We must not use greater force than is necessary to preserve liberty.
3. We must not fail to threaten or wage war whenever we’re confronted with the loss of liberty for ourselves or for those we’ve pledged to support.
4. We ought not to pledge military assistance to those whom we ought not or cannot defend.
Enemy soldiers are not innocent civilians. We do no moral evil when we kill enemy soldiers in a just cause, but killing the innocent by the thousands, or even threatening to kill them by the thousands, is an immoral act in violation of the standard of love that Christians and ethicists must follow. We shouldn’t need Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas, or Calvin to tell us that!
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