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THE QUESTION
Just War
President Bush is preparing this week to send more troops to Baghdad. Do you believe there is such a thing as a "just war"? Is the Iraq war "just"?
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on January 10, 2007 9:00 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Many Religious Traditions Created by Men, But Presented as Sacred
Men, the patriarchs, "the good and not-so-good old boys" were the primary religious scholars and leaders, the interpreters of sacred texts and laws, ritual makers and architects of religious institutions.
Posted by John Esposito, on January 20, 2007 10:10 AM
We have failed the test of Just War in Iraq
The value of just war norms is that they help us test the wisdom and morality of wars. It seems clear that in Iraq, we have failed.
Posted by David Saperstein, on January 20, 2007 10:09 AM
Pacifism In No Way Means 'Passive'
While Bush has certainly shown that he is stubborn and unrelentingly confident during the course of his Administration, when have these qualities ever passed for wisdom?
Posted by Donna Freitas, on January 16, 2007 3:42 PM
Our Goddess Weeps At Our Wars
As someone born Jewish in the post-Holocaust era, I can’t say that an armed response is never justified or necessary. But let us not call it ‘just.’
Posted by Starhawk, on January 15, 2007 7:30 PM
World Needs A Strong United Nations
Having made a huge mess, we maybe do have a responsibility to stay and clear it up.
Posted by Nicholas T. Wright, on January 15, 2007 6:05 PM
Its Time To Abandon Just War Theory
The problem with the concept of a just war is the implication that the_conditions of the teaching can actually be met.
Posted by James Anderson, on January 15, 2007 5:15 PM
View That US Has 'Peculiar Mission' To Dislodge World's Dictators Is Wrong
We have increased the risk of global conflict and, yes, global terrorism by our actions. If there is something "just" in all this, it is hard to discern.
Posted by William A. Graham, on January 15, 2007 4:30 PM
We Need to Go Beyond Assumptions of 'Just War' Theory
Christians should contribute a more radical ethic than 'Just War.'
Posted by William Tully, on January 15, 2007 12:20 PM
Iraq Does Not Fit Jewish Tradition of 'Just War'
There is a "Just War" tradition in Judaism but this war does not fit any criteria one might apply.
Posted by Julia Neuberger, on January 15, 2007 11:06 AM
Don't Try to 'Perfume' War With Religious Claims
Religious voices that support this war on the basis of some obscure prediction from the first century in the book of Revelation are frankly in need of psychiatric intervention and should be treated at once.
Posted by John Shelby Spong, on January 15, 2007 9:25 AM
Morally Wrong to Abandon Iraq Simply To Save Ourselves
Among the gravest moral dangers of this war is the extent to which we, as a nation, have been led to embrace the tactics of our terrorist enemy.
Posted by Mark S. Sisk, on January 14, 2007 5:32 PM
To Escalate The War Now Is Criminal
A surge will simply mean more young Americans in body bags and wheel chairs, more families left without dads, moms, sons, or daughters, and more slaughter of innocent civilians. The war in Iraq was unjust; to continue it now is criminal.
Posted by Jim Wallis, on January 14, 2007 4:33 PM
A Just War? Does The Emperor Have Clothes?
Perhaps the American people are beginning to realize that the war on the streets of Baghdad is not going to be won by an increase in troops, as our stubborn President insists, but by finally sitting down with other world leaders to discuss how we can work together to end terrorism.
Posted by Lauren Artress, on January 14, 2007 11:33 AM
American Christians Must Recover Faith's Early Emphasis on Non-violence
Perhaps many evangelical Christians (and perhaps our born-again President) were unaware that Christian teaching about “just war” explicitly prohibits preemptive war.
Posted by Marcus Borg, on January 13, 2007 4:04 PM
Relying on Faith Instead of Facts Brought Moral Calamity
Nothing has done more to discredit religious faith in recent years than the self-righteous overconfidence with which our leaders have “listened to God” instead of listening to the knowledgeable secular advisors who warned them, repeatedly, of the follies they were embarking on.
Posted by Daniel C. Dennett, on January 13, 2007 3:45 PM
If I May Suggest Some Reading
This question can't be answered briefly.
Posted by George Weigel, on January 13, 2007 1:17 PM
US Withdrawal Morally Unacceptable Until Iraq Stable
No decision can be made about Iraq without considering what would happen to Israel...If America withdrew now..it’s only a matter of time before it was destroyed.
Posted by Charles "Chuck" Colson, on January 12, 2007 1:55 PM
Unjust War May Require US Reparations To Iraq
I stand with papal teaching that nuclear weaponry technology has made any full-scale war today unjust and immoral.
Posted by Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, on January 12, 2007 11:52 AM
Sometimes The Only Way To Fight Evil Is To Destroy It
Evil is not just a relative and imaginary power, it does exist.
Posted by Adin Steinsaltz, on January 12, 2007 10:30 AM
We "Blew It" in Iraq
How can we criticize India or Pakistan when either decides that "preemptive war" suits them?
Posted by Martin Marty, on January 11, 2007 4:05 PM
War in Iraq : Disastrous US Decision
The US conceded it was not the legitimate authority to declare war on Iraq--a precondition for a just war--by itself seeking the approval of the UN Security Council.
Posted by Desmond Tutu, on January 11, 2007 11:38 AM
Iraq War Was Just When It Began
The justness of the war lies in the global disaffection with the Hussein dictatorship and its arrogant defiance of UN rulings.
Posted by Sulayman Nyang, on January 11, 2007 11:28 AM
"Just War" or Just More War?
Just War theory is useful in bringing orderly reflection to the consideration of using military force. Otherwise, the emotional drumbeat for war will always prevail.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on January 11, 2007 10:50 AM
Iraq: An Unnecessary and Unjust War
We should turn away from war now and rely on diplomacy as the only way to peace in the Middle East.
Posted by William J. Byron, on January 11, 2007 10:40 AM
Our Unjust War Leaves A Mess To Clean Up
One way to get your stubborn teenager to come out of his locked bedroom is to set the house on fire, but that would not be proportionate strategy. It seems clear now--and we should have anticipated this at the outset--that the invasion of Iraq would create a chaos that would be totally unmanageable.
Posted by Richard Mouw, on January 10, 2007 7:02 PM
Waist Deep In The 'Big Muddy'?
I hear again—after forty years—a certain repeated line from Pete Seeger’s “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” but now with Mekong morphed into Tigris.
Posted by John Dominic Crossan, on January 10, 2007 6:06 PM
Whose Justice, Whose War?
Our indifference to the hundreds of thousands Iraqi lives lost since we launched a war on their soil speaks volumes about American values.
Posted by Susan Jacoby, on January 10, 2007 10:30 AM
War Continues Because Humans Do Not Make Peace With God
Bush policy of preemptive war fits definition of a just war in the case of terrorism.
Posted by Cal Thomas, on January 10, 2007 9:50 AM
Do we know our moral presumptions?
Let’s admit it. Christianity, my faith tradition, has a mixed history on war. Though Jesus embodied a radical ethic of loving one’s enemy, and though early Christianity was almost wholly pacifist, Christians have also been crusaders and war-makers....
Posted by William Tully, on January 10, 2007 6:07 AM
FEATURED COMMENTS
Concerned The Christian Now Liberated: We are in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and every airport and dock in the USA and beyond for one simple reason, Bill Clinton chose to chase wom...
candide: The Just War doctrine, like all theological propositions, is fraudulent. You can always dress up an argument for or against war based on Ch...
Mad Love: No. Not even close....
