I do believe that there is such a thing as a just cause. I do not believe that modern warfare can possibly be a rational answer to it.

War itself is now inherently unjust because it now is little more than the slaughter of civilian populations. It is indiscriminate in its assault on civilians, disproportionate to the political issues involved, waged with maximum force against minimally equipped peoples.

At the turn of the 20th century, civilian casualties of war were 5% of the total. Armies, trained soldiers, faced one another eye to eye across defined battle lines. At the end of World War I, the number of civilian casualties was 15% of the total. By the end of World War II, civilians accounted for 65% of total casualties. By the 90's, they amounted to 75% of total war-related deaths.

In Iraq now, the percentage of civilian to military deaths is over 90%.

Apparently, as bombing runs destroy major civilian areas, and “military” targets include water pipes, electric grids and utility plants, the safest place to be in wartime now is in the military, not at home rocking a crib or on the streets on the way to work. All of society is now a target.

Given the 700 times more explosive power available to military operations than in all of World War II put together, there are no guaranteed safe sites, no boundaries, and no civilian immunity anymore. Only thousands upon thousands of dead, only millions upon millions of abandoned refugees.

Now we strike our enemies from miles away, never see their dying eyes, never hear the agony we create, never see the homes we demolish, never see the neighborhoods our so-called precision bombs destroy, never feel the wince of regret. And in the end, never shatter the boundaries of our own desensitized humanity.

Instead, as the Roman historian Tacitus said, “We make a desert and call it peace.”

How can such an operation possibly be just?