The Just War Theory

Simbarashe Sigauke

Just War

The just war theory is a tradition of military ethics that deals with the justification of how and why wars are fought. The purpose for the tradition is to ensure that war is morally justifiable through a series of criteria. The just war criteria are split into two groups: justice in going to war (jus ad bellum) and justice in war (jus in bello). Jus ad bellum deals with the morality of going to war and jus in bello with moral conduct within war. The historical aspect, or the "just war tradition," deals with the historical body of rules or agreements that have applied in various wars across the ages. I believe that nations need to defend themselves from enemies hence they need armies and at times need to engage in war. I however find it hard to justify war as Christian knowing that it is violent. Sometimes nations violate the just war principle as they engage in warfare for the purposes of domination and control. The world powers of our day are in a rush for resources in order to feed their ever growing and expanding economies and they abuse the just war theory because they have selfish motives. Jesus was never an advocate for war and the scriptures call him the prince of peace. He never taught that the end justifies the means but rather he was concerned with the means by which the end is met. I believe that non-violence is the best way to deal with violence because good always triumphs over evil.

De La Torre appeals to the principle of non-violence through speaking truth to power. He speaks of the American military industrial complex. The problem with the just war principle is that we are assuming that people or people groups have the capacity to make moral decisions. What I have observed is that people groups tend to cater for their own self interests and the majority of wars through out history have resulted in the death and wounding of innocent civilians. The United States of America’s economy is closely connected to the military industry hence war becomes a money making mission. Wealthy nations are also in constant need of resources such as oil to fuel their ever-expanding economies hence the purpose for going to war would be exploitation and plundering of poor nation’s resources. Violence never brings peace but always perpetuates more violence. Most nations the United States of America has entered since the war on terror are still in turmoil and worse of than before. The best way to deal with violence is non-violence.