Is There Such a Thing as Just War?
To anyone willing to fight in a particular war, that war is seemingly just. Thus, to un-hypocritically justify war, one must physically engage in it. There are a lot of people who support war, yet are unwilling to engage in actual combat. These people are the epitome of hypocrisy. And, just for the record, having a family member fighting in a war doesn’t remedy that hypocrisy. If it isn’t you fighting, you don’t really believe the war is just. Unfortunately, older people can cop out and say that if they were younger they’d be fighting. However, younger people who support war and aren’t fighting have no excuse.
I personally would not join the military to fight in a war. I would not give my body up to be used by a bunch of clueless politicians. And if I were ever drafted, I’d quickly start looking for a new place to live. You can’t end war by fighting more wars. And you can’t fight wars if there is no one willing to fight.
One of the very few scenarios in which I would take up arms and engage in war is if someone, or some group, showed up in my neighborhood wanting to take it and me over. That kind of war is called self-defense, and it is the extreme case in which I’d consider justifying war. It is hard to beat an armed citizenry on their home turf. That is basically how America freed itself from the British.
To me, the real problem with war is the aggressors versus the defenders. I have nothing against letting two aggressors who want to kill each other fight a war. However, when non-consenting people who don’t want the war are stuck in the middle, forced to self-defend and deal with the consequences, then that is unacceptable. To start a war and force people to get involved who don’t want to is criminal, plain and simple.
Just war is all in a person’s head. There is no objective just war. Where there is a will to stop war there is a way. But we can never expect to stop large scale wars if we can’t even stop waging mini wars against people in our individual lives. The end of war starts at home. Justification of war is simply a symptom of insanity.
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2 Responses to “Is There Such a Thing as Just War?”
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Excellent logical reasoning. I am sending this to my son a college student.
Thanks a lot, I’m glad to hear you liked my reasoning.