War Sucks or Does It?

We understand that Shue says war has to be resorted and conducted justly for it to be justified. In the past wars have been fought over oil and private agendas, both of which I do not think justify the use of my country men and women because I do not think it is in their best interest. For the sake of my argument, the United States was attacked by another country. We did not taunt of conduct ourselves in any way to ask for an attack. It would be in our best interest for our country men and women to retaliate. What about a no action option?

As a leader, it is for my common good to protect my people. I used up all of my diplomatic capital and the only way to make my point is to attack. I then launch some rockets over to my enemies homeland. These are not just any old rockets, but smart rockets that do not kill any civilians. It is a clear situation between my enemy and I. "The problem with this justification is that war itself is of such magnitude that it could not be rightly justified to all involved at any one time," (Angie). I believe that there can be just war but all too often the human agenda is too powerful. The human agenda can be many things, including money, land , and revenge. When has there been a war in the past century that has been resorted and conducted justly. I cannot say for a fact that the firestorm of Dresden was not evil, that the murdering of civilians in Vietnam was not evil, or that the 'smart bombs' dropped in Iraq have not been evil.

Axl writes, "Why then do we have war, and in terms of weighing the harm done to others versus the harm prevented from being done, are any wars just?" How can we aplly the priciple of porportionalty to not going to to war? To lend an analogy, when creating an environmental impact statment, there must always be the no action option. Shue does not do a good job of including the justification of no action. In my example above, could we ever be able to justify not going to war with a country that attacked our sovereignty? Certainly, public opinion would make a difference in the justification, as it did shortly after 9/11. I have scratched my brain for a justified war and failed to find one. So I think that we must in turn ask the question of, can a no action be just as justified or unjustified. I have a hard time applying laws unilaterally.