Christine Smith's Blog

When was the last “just war”?

Thus, I’ve read with interest the concept of a “just war,” which dates back to Cicero, including the Just War Theory or Doctrine found in my own faith of Catholicism.  It delineates, from a moral perspective, the reasons and means in which war can be fought in order to be considered just in the eyes of the Church, including as a prerequisite that all other viable alternatives have been attempted first, and that if war ensues that humane treatment of prisoners of war and others involved is maintained.

Everyone likes to think that the U.S. government has always been “just” and righteous in its use of force, but obviously it has violated such principles, terrorizing and killing civilian populations, as well as engaging in torture.  Regardless of what an “enemy” has done, such evil is never justified. The U.S. government is one of the worst offenders in its arrogant use of its might worldwide.  “Might” does not make “right,” but our government has misused its power for decades.

The result of waging unjust wars is never favorable.  For the goal of regime change (to a more favorable government toward U.S. agendas) many people die, hostility toward the U.S. heightens, and civil liberties in America are trampled. 

So, again, I consider the question what wars this government was involved in adhered to the principles of The Just War Doctrine, or were most conflicts avoidable?

As I consider the use of our military, I am unable to identify an instance offhand where 1. Other means besides warfare were really attempted.  2. It was declared with proper authority (in our case, by Congress) 2. Loss of civilian life and property were respected, with civilians not being indiscriminately harmed or killed.  3. There was (what I consider the only legitimate reason) a violent aggressor threatening the United States who had to be stopped. 

Former President Jimmy Carter addressed such issues in regards to the idea of a war against Iraq in his March 9, 2003 piece, “Just War — or a Just War?” in the New York Times.

The instances this government has engaged in war (at least in recent history I recall) have all been fought with all manner of “good causes” being cited often with loads of rhetoric about “defending our freedom” or “spreading democracy.”  But which military actions defended our freedom?  And as for “spreading democracy,” that is not a valid reason for war whether one considers the “just war” theory or the U.S. Constitution.  On the contrary, we could have been a nation at peace if peace had been our goal. Most of our conflicts have not been declared by Congress nor were they presidential responses to a “sudden attack.”

Peace has never been the goal of the U.S. government, and thus warfare continues.  Real motives are concealed and cloaked with a facade of all the “reasons” force must be used, and like obedient children, the American people have often passively accepted whatever is told them.

But what about WWII and the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor?  Though Americans were predominately against entering the war, Pearl Harbor of course changed that immediately.  

One of the best articles examining this is by Robert Higgs and published in the May 2006 issue of The Freeman magazine, “How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor.“  I recommend everyone read that informative piece, and for further research any number of books and discussions at the Independent Institutes’s Pearl Harbor Archive.

As Jacob G. Hornberger wrote of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his Dec. 1991 article, “December 7, 1941: The Infamy of FDR,” “Nevertheless, the man who did everything he could in the 1930s to destroy America’s legacy of economic liberty proceeded on a fateful — and illegal — course of action: waging undeclared war on Germany and Japan in an attempt to maneuver them into “Firing the first shot” — thereby justifying America’s formal entry into the war.”   Hornberger’s  article is a must read to clarify and illumine any American who still believes the myths about our entry into WWII that most of us have been taught. 

Regardless of how Americans might “feel,” about any number of the military conflicts, if such conflicts violate our very Constitution they cannot be justified.  An excellent examination of this point, also by Hornberger, can be found in his April 2002 piece, “Declaring and Waging War: The U.S. Constitution.”

To attack and invade nations who have not attacked or are even capable of threatening us allies is unjust.