Tim Esposito Justice and the Just War Theory Just War Theory

16 March 2012

The Just War Theory is a military doctrine of Roman and Christian ethics which states that a violent conflict must meet religious, political, and philosophical criteria

The first mentions of the Just War Theory was in an Indian epic, the Mahabharata, which is assumed to have been written about 540 to 300 BCE o It became a starting point for European nations later on

The Christian medieval theory of the justification of war began with St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Their attempt to define what a war was just began with three conditions 1. The war must occur for a good and just purpose instead of a gain or exercise of power 2. The war must be waged by a proper institute such as the state 3. Peace must be the central motive

Acts of war should be directed towards enemy combatants and not towards noncombatants

The third set of criteria for the just war theory involves justice after the war is ended Does this make the Iraq war justifiable? o Originally Iraq was invaded to search for weapons of mass destruction o Over 1 trillion dollars spent from 2003-2011 o Over 4,400 US troop causalities and over 300 non-troop casualties

Pros: 1. Have eye on Pakistan, Russia and China 2. Shows that US has got strength 3. Fighting extremism

Tim Esposito Justice and the Just War Theory 4. Uniting NATO 5. Control in the Middle East Cons: 1. Waste of Money- $510,580,000,000 as of 9:27 AM today 2. Making more enemies 3. Wasting world resources 4. Wasting precious lives 5. Wasting time

16 March 2012

6. Taking on the role of the worlds police force, putting us into positions to do the same in the future 7. The Afghanis dont want us there 8. It gives the Taliban more reason to hate us 9. It causes blowback Blowback o Blowback is a CIA term first used in March 1954 in a recently declassified report on the 1953 operation to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. It is a metaphor for the unintended consequences of the US government's international activities that have been kept secret from the American people (Johnson). o The unintended adverse results of a political action or situation; an unforeseen and unwanted effect, result, or set of repercussions Debate Questions Do you think the Iraq war was justifiable according to the Just War Theory?

Tim Esposito Justice and the Just War Theory

16 March 2012

I think that the war in Iraq was not justifiable by the Just War Theory because there wasnt really a good reason for it. It was a war based on lies and war mongering, as it was depicted as an essential mission for our country. Along with that, peace was a motive, but it was peace through an exercise of military power. Even with Just War Theory do you think war can ever be justifiable since there are so many other ways of settling disputes? I think that war can be justified in some serious cases. By this I mean that there must be a serious threat against ones own nation for that nation to go to war. If a country is attacked, then that is a justified reason to defend the nation through war.

Johnson, C.. Blowback. N.p., 2001. Web. 16 Mar 2012. <http://www.thenation.com/article/blowback>.

I think that the Just War Theory is very important policy for all of the nations of the world to follow if they are to go to war. It gives a guideline of how to fight the war so that the innocent are safe, and really only the main purposes of the war are considered. I think that through this, a war can actually be resolved faster as the nations fight fairly so that there isnt more tension between them. However, I think that it does need to be enforced more because there is too much violence outside of the limits of this theory.