Jus Ad Bellum (Part 2) - more a rant than thoughtful dialog

Recently I blogged about jus ad bellum here and have continued to read and study the issue, specifically as it relates to the current (beginning 2003)war in Iraq. What I find interesting, or maybe troubling is the comments of several Christians who discussed this very issue but before the invasion. I guess it's not their comments so much as change in their thinking that has happened since that time. For instance, Chuck Colson, wrote that preemptive strikes do meet the requirements of the Christian Just War Doctrine.

It is interesting to note that in Colson's article and in this article there are several assumptions made about Iraq and also several statements beginning with the word if. Now, of course, it has been shown that those assumptions were false and the "ifs," were not met.

Yet, in spite of this, many Christian leaders today still hold that the war was just, However, their reasons for declaring it so are different. Primarily, the cruelty of Saddam Hussein to his own people is laid out as worth the invasion and secondarily, his harsh vocal critiques of the US is also given as a support for the supposed 'justness' of the Iraq war.

The second should be thrown out with the trash because harsh critiques are (probably) never deserving of punishment nor do they constitute any real threat. The first, although grave and terrible, also falls short of meeting any criteria laid out in the doctrine of Just War.

As one evaluates the proponents of this doctrine laid out by Christians before the war began, one finds that today's knowledge and circumstances ALL point to the unjustness of the Iraq war, not one of the criteria for a war to be just was met. In other words, this war has failed to meet the guidelines set ahead of time and as a result, many Christian leaders have changed the guidelines. I find this political pandering to the republican party, distasteful. I am a republican based on principles of limited federal government, individual freedom, states rights, and local control. If republican no longer believe in such things, it is not me who left the party, but, as has been said many times, the party left me.

I've rambled quite a bit. I hope all this makes sense.

You can find several of the proponents of the Just War Doctrine in the articles linked above.