Re: Re: By the way, Bill

> What's a "legal war" exactly?

Deepak, I think the origin of the neo-con campaign to wage war in Iraq is based on St. Augustine's "Just War Theory".  Augustine was the among the first to try to reconcile the waging of war with Christian principles.  For St. Augustine the only reason for waging a war would be to defend the nation's peace against serious injury.  One could say the Bush argument of WMDs would justify the Iraq war.  St. Thomas Aquinas, who expanded on Augustine's work, considers such a cause to be "that those who are attacked, should be attacked because they deserve it on account of some fault." St. Thomas demands a right intention for waging war. Only two possibilities are presented: either the furthering of some good or an avoidance of some evil.  So, somewhere here is a justification for adding democracy to Iraq or avoiding further problems with Saddam.

But in the case of "legal war", in the Iraq case, some form of legal sanction by the overarching authority could certainly be seen as required.  In this case, UN approval.  If it wasn't obtained, then the war is illegal.  Other ways would be asked to help (like we were in Vietnam, Kuwait, or Korea) or actual attack (like Japan's attack on the US).

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the first case, the "Just War" has it's background in religious theory while the second is more secular.  





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