As the Iraq War was set to begin, the preacher at the small, rural_Episcopal Church I attend gave a sermon on the theology of a just war. He_laid out the conditions of the just war theory in clear and simple language_and, without taking a position, urged the congregation to use these_principles in forming their own judgments about the impending conflict.
To my mind, the congregation was misled. If ever a Christian teaching needed to_be consigned to the dusty archives of history, the concept of a just war is_a prime candidate.
Who today can even define the meaning of war. It is estimated that 135_million persons lost their lives in the armed conflicts of the 20th Century. This tsunami of blood and violence, propelled by the forces of technology_and industrialization erased the boundaries of war waged on defined fields_of battle by uniformed battalions. Our President has spoken often of a war_on terror, but the use of the word war confuses, as much as it clarifies, the nature of the threat and our response as a nation. Since the day_President Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier and basically told_us the war in Iraq had been won, the level of death, destruction and_horrible violence in Iraq has continued to grow by leaps and bounds._
We no longer can adequately define what is and is not a war. Armed_conflict in the 20th Century broke out of the boundaries which made such_definition possible. We do know that armed conflict, on the scale and_intensity now possible and with the now inevitable deadly involvement of_civilian populations and habitation, will always have unjust and horrible_consequences. This, despite the best efforts of our well trained and_courageous military._
The problem with the concept of a just war is the implication that the_conditions of the teaching can actually be met and maintained for the_duration of the conflict. This is not possible. The conditions for a just_war are invalid because we know they cannot all be made to hold. Surely we_see in the 21st Century that armed conflict must only be the very last_resort when all other paths have failed and we as a nation believe we are_forced to defend the rights enshrined in our Constitution and system of_laws. In every instance, where force of arms is decided, for the sake of all_involved, the most we can hope to say is that we honestly believed, God_forgive us, we had no other choice.
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