Iraq War -- Just or Unjust War?

Doomar · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 10:29 am Post subject: Iraq War -- Just or Unjust War?

From a nationalist's point of view, war is a matter of winning and losing in a battle with another country. From a Christian perspective, it is far different. Is the recent war with Iraq an example of a just war, if you believe there is such a thing in Christianity, or an unjust war? The debate of whether all war is good or bad is not what this thread is about, only the justness or unjustness of this particular war. Your comments are welcome.
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"Just when you think you have a handle on it...it moves."

Matthew · babble buster Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 22

The main argument I hear Doomar is that we had to help the people because Saddam was torturing them, and killing anyone who disagreed with him. I'm not sure if this is true, but if it is the war certainly seems more reasonable. The problem with the "torture angle" though is that I don't recall hearing much about that until after the WoMD thing fell through. Also, if it were all about saving the people I think we would have not blasted everything from afar. Another thing, why if we are "saving" them do they hate us so much? Clearly they don't see it as being freed, so something else must be going on.
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Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Doomar · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 12:02 am Post subject: saving or killing?

Matthew, you make some very good points. Check out some statistics on the war and a Christian Perspective as written by Pastor Steve Brown, M.Div Asbury http://www.dands-construction.com/psweb/Iraqwar.htm
You are absolutely correct in your analysis about saving the Iraqi people...why would we use massive bombs and missles if we were concerned about saving them? According to reports on "iraqbodycount.com" between 8,600 and 10,600 civilians have been killed in this war. That number exceeds the number of soldier casualties by a couple thousand. What happened to Geneva conventions rules about targeting civilian areas? When we were going after a kill of Saddam we targeted civilian areas, missing Saddam and killing many civilans. Guess those lives were expendable, as were the morals involved.
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"Just when you think you have a handle on it...it moves."

Matthew · babble buster Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 22

What was the Geneva convention? I have heard of it, but don't know the details. Thanks for the link. I checked out the statistics, and I also saw the running cost for the war. You would think there would be better uses for such a large sum of money.
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Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Rogue Physicist · sentient bipedal physicist Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 78

I think this might help you:
It is a report on the Just War Principles with an Analysis which I wrote just before the beginning of the Iraqi War, after the Anglican Bishop issued his statement that the war was not Just according to the principles:

http://lentils.imagineis.com/polit/jws.html