Just War Essay Research Paper The Just

Just War Essay, Research Paper

The Just war theory is and interesting one simply because the phrase just war is an oxymoron. War is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations. Implicit in this definition of war is the result of death and since justice is right action towards other death is the most unjust of things. Thus war is unjust.

Although there is the case where one country goes to war with another because the other has unjust policy and warfare if the catalysis believed to change these policies.

Jesus Christ taught us to love our enemies and when they offended us to turn the other cheek. However that was what he preached to a small sect of Jews two thousand years ago. This teaching did not only work it worked well at the time because there was no way for a few hundred or even thousand early Christians to take on the whole Roman army, which persecuting the early Christians. However things soon changed drastically. Constantine the emperor of Roman had a religious conversion and made Christianity the official religion of the state. Which changed the nature of the religion. Christianity became main stream so to speak. Roman officials began to convert just because it might help them in the political career. The small Christian faith communities that had been in hiding for fear that they would be persecuted were able to come out and worship openly. In addition to all this the religion also became more scholarly. People became true historians and students of Christianity. The Church took on a government like hiearchtical structure. From all this change religious policies and disputes were no longer settle at just the local level by a few people getting together and figuring out what they though would be best. There was a system developed to resolve these problems. It involved consulting scholars on the subject and then coming to a conclusion in committee and writing an official policy on it. This policy setting process usually happened in Rome because that was the center of power and knowledge at the time. So most of the scholars of the time resided in there. Along with most of the Roman officials because it was also the capital city of the Roman Empire. This was convenient because after Constantine.s conversion there was nothing separating church and state. With church and state so closely connected it was impossible for the doctrine that all war, no matter what the reasons being, was bad to remain as it was. An empire can not be aposed to all war. War is unfortunately a necessary evil of government especially in that time period. Through this problem the theory of the just war arose. The Holy Roman Empire could not have other people attacking it and not be able to respond because of the official state religion prohibited it. From this imperial need for warfare the criteria for just ware came. However it is easy to see that they were written to help the government. Many people feel that no war is just and while the Church agrees that there is sin in all war. It does say that under certain conditions that war is the only option.

The separation of church and state in the United States works to avoid the problem that Rome had. It helps to remove some the moral guilt that is felt from warfare. It is interesting though that the United States has taken on the role of the world.s police department. While the United States is not officially connected to any religion it is a government run by the people and the majority of the people are from a Judeo-Christian background. This is a Judeo-Christian culture and from that there are certain policies and traditions that permeate all facets of life. Including war policy.

In the post World War II world the United States emerged as the premiere world power with its only rival for global dominance being the Soviet Union. This caused some interesting tension because the two countries which fought on the same side during the war. Although the Soviet Union was under a different government at the time the two nations went form being allies to complete enemies. The governments of the two countries were formed with the opposite philosophy. The United States was formed with the freedom of the individual as it central goal. The Soviet Union however was formed with the good of the state as its first priority. The Soviets were taught that the good of the many far outweighs the good of the few or the one and that through the equal sharing of goods and services all would benefit. On top of the tension that was between the two states because they were the most powerful and that their governments were based on two completely opposite political theories there was the added pressure of the nuclear arms race. In an attempt to show the world which type of government and way of life was better the two countries built up their armies and constructed enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over.

After the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan in World War Two the United States took it upon itself to be the .protector of the free world.. Under this title The Korean ware and the Vietnam War were fought to .protect. these countries from communism.

In the case of the Vietnam War the reason for fighting was not completely clear. It seemed that the United States simply did not want The Soviet Union.s communist way of l