User:Obrienn5

War and Peace
In Matthew 24:6, Jesus said, “And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars”. It has been estimated that since the first war that was recorded at Armageddon in 1469 to today’s date, there have only been 268 years without a war. In actual fact, even though a war may not make the everyday headlines, somewhere in the world, there is a war going on at this very moment in time.

War may be defined as:

“Armed hostilities between two or more opposing groups, in which each side puts people forward to fight and kill one another.”

This is rarely a single, clear cut cause for the outbreak of war. People have fought, and continue to fight for a complex mixture of reasons. Sadly, the effects of such conflicts are, in each case, the same: loss of life and a humanitarian crises.

The precise extent of these effects depends upon:

1)	The duration of the conflict

2)	The types of people and place targeted

3)	The kind of weapons used

Approaches to War

Over the centuries people have tended to embrace one or another of the following:

1)	Pacifism: the belief that war can never be morally justified, no matter what the circumstances may be.

2)	Crusade: The belief that war can be authorised by God and required to fulfil some divine plan for humanity

3)	Real Politik: Belief that war can be considered an acceptable method for furthering the economic, territorial or security interests of a state or merely its ruling elite

4)	Just War: Belief that, despite its often horrific and destructive character, war can be morally justified in certain circumstances and under certain conditions.

Principles of the Just War

•	A just war can only be waged as a last resort. All non-violent options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified.

•	A war is just only if it is waged by a legitimate authority. Even just causes cannot be served by actions taken by individuals or groups who do not constitute an authority sanctioned by whatever the society and outsiders to the society deem legitimate.

•	A just war can only be fought to redress a wrong suffered. For example, self-defense against an armed attack is always considered to be a just cause. Further, a just war can only be fought with "right" intentions: the only permissible objective of a just war is to redress the injury.

•	A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success. Deaths and injury incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable.

•	The ultimate goal of a just war is to re-establish peace. More specifically, the peace established after the war must be preferable to the peace that would have prevailed if the war had not been fought.

•	The violence used in the war must be proportional to the injury suffered. States are prohibited from using force not necessary to attain the limited objective of addressing the injury suffered.

•	The weapons used in war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. Civilians are never permissible targets of war, and every effort must be taken to avoid killing civilians. The deaths of civilians are justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target.