Just War?
Google Image This blog is about the “just war theory,” but the title could just as easily apply to the proclivity of the U.S. and other powers to rely principally on military action to solve their differences. So, you could ask the question as “Just War? Is this all we can do?” Just War Theory has a long history in the Western intellectual tradition. St. Augustine, the famous Christian philosopher, theologian and African bishop who died in the year 430, commented on the morality of war from a Christian perspective. But St. Thomas Aquinas eight centuries later provided the most celebrated and still discussed version of the theory. Here are its main outlines. 1. Just cause . The reasons for going to war need to be just. The U.S. Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1993 expressed it this way: “Force may be used...