Just War
Theodore Roosevelt once said that the U.S was to "walk quietly and carry a big stick". Today there is no walking quietly about it. The United States is still caring that big stick but we are lumbering over the other countries like Paul Bunion.President Bush has gotten his congressional mandate to launch a war on Iraq. America will, for the first time in its modern history, attack someone who has not attacked our allies or us first. We will exercise a first-strike option, something the United States did not do even at the height of the Cold War. We now abandon any pretense that this proposed war against Iraq is just. It cannot be justified. We will strike not because Iraq has attacked us, not because there is any direct proof Iraq harbors those who have attacked us, not because Iraq has attacked one of our allies, but because we think maybe, just maybe, Iraq might do something we really won't like in the next couple of years. Studs Terkel called World War II "the last good war." And perhaps it was. But that hasn't kept pre
sidents from arguing that wars they wanted to wage since then are good and are justified. The first President George Bush went to great lengths in 1991 to argue before religious broadcasters that his proposed Gulf War fulfilled every tenet of the long-standing Just War theory. We can see that no part of Just War theory supports a first-strike option. To have a just cause, you have to be defending yourself (or defending someone else from attack). Not in this proposed war with Iraq. We just think somebody sometime might get attacked by Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney's 1992 white paper calls this "anticipatory action to defend us." That means, "Hit 'em first and then hit 'em back." That way you cover all the bases. It is immoral. St. Augustine wanted to know if Christians could resist barbarians. If the United States strikes first against Iraq, then it is Americans who have become the barbarians. We have learned nothing in more than 1,500 years of moral reasoning. He bothered because war is horrific. War wreaks havoc
Some common words found in the essay are:
Thomas Aquinas, Gulf War, St Augustine, Cold War, Dick Cheney's, DC Christian, Bush Ethicists, Theodore Roosevelt, Iraq America, Saddam Hussein, war theory, justify war, war iraq, proposed war iraq, war horrific, defending yourself, first-strike option, attacked iraq, hit 'em, military strategists, iraq attacked,
Approximate Word count = 694
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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