Is There Such a Thing as a “Just” War?

Before considering the meaning of a “just” war, we must first establish what war is. War is that state of armed conflict between different groups or cultures. War can often be started by one person, who could be a dictator, or someone important who is killed. In the result of war thousands are killed, so how therefore is it possible to define a war as “just”? We blame this urge for fighting to protect our possessions and beliefs, on human nature, but we are taught violence and aggression from youth, to stand up for ourselves. Often some people will go as far as killing someone or even themselves to express their beliefs.

From when we are born to when we die, we experience many fights. No matter how small they are they will still have an impact on our lives, this is where we learn our aggression. Learning violence is like learning a new language, you listen/watch and repeat. Violence can also be seen as a plague, which spreads from one person to another. You may learn your violence from your parents, seeing then fighting, your brothers, sisters, friends, and anyone else in your life. If you were brought up in a family where one of your parents fought for the army (their country), you are very likely to turn out doing exactly the same, because you were brought up to think and fell like that.

Some people think that defending their country is like defending their possessions and beliefs, so when they are sent into war, they are expected to do what they are commanded by their higher rank. For example if your higher rank told you to bomb a whole village just because the enemy MIGHT be hiding in one of these houses, would you do it? This has to be “unjust”, how can it be fair to kill thousands just because it is easier to kill the enemy. Another way this could be seen is that if the countries leader gets killed, the country might decide to end the war, which in result means that less people are going to get killed in the long run. This idea could be called “just”.

In these patriots’ eyes they will consider any war fighting for their country as “just”, and the fighters on the receiving end will think that the oppositions reason for was is “unjust”. If one is being attacked, then they have no other choice but to defend, or even attack back, and that is how was is created, a two-way armed conflict. Nowadays was is becoming more sophisticated, less people need to fight a war and more are killed, because of the vast devastation of the weapons, controlled by computer technology from a base maybe thousands of miles away from the action. Instead of soldiers dying in combat, the victims are now civilians, of which most don’t want anything to do with war.