The High Ground

Just War is a difficult concept, one that I spend a fair amount of time teaching – especially in my humanities classes. It is a difficult topic for adults and young people alike. There are several principles that my students seem to agree on year after year.

1. War is a valid practice – but only when all other options have been exhausted.
2. The just war is one that has moral right behind it – self defense, the defense of allies or relations, to halt significant acts of violence…these are acceptable uses of war.
3. Legitimate authority is essential to the prosecution of just war. The decision to go to war must be made by means that are acceptable to the governed.
4. The use of force should be appropriate to the threat in a just war.
5. A just war must be one that promises a REASONABLE chance of victory.
6. Combatants in a just war have a responsibility to  protect the lives of non-combatants at all costs.
7. Peace should be declared as soon as the objectives have been met.

These are the ones that most often agree with ‘established’ tenets of Just War theory, although I often get others that are equally interesting. When I teach this concept, I usually toss out a bunch of wars throughout history, ask students to pick one, and apply the theory to it. They are expected to defend or prosecute the war on the basis of the criteria they have agreed on. It is often the most interesting unit we do in the course of the semester. Students learn that we have fought hundreds and hundreds of wars in recorded history. Of course, the Iraq War has been a popular one for inquiry the past 5 years – and it is one that causes students a fair amount of anxiety as they reflect on the qualifications of the war.

The purpose of this entry is to set the foundations for my future entries on war. The Iraq War has been a popular issue for discussion and debate for all of the candidates. War is never - nor should ever be – a popular or desirable activity. The cost in human life is immense, the allocation of resources that could have been expended on other needs, and the money that could have been otherwise spent – or more appropriately – saved…all are squandered with abandon in the prosecution of war. Conversely, war is sometimes the only moral alternative. It is in the application of the guiding principles of just war that we can balance the horrors of war against the horrors of inaction.