Just War
"No 'healing', no apologies, no memorials, nothing can possibly compensate for the damage done and the pain inflicted....The only thing we can possibly do, twenty years too late, is to try and tell the truth." --Historian Eric Bergerud (UC Berkeley) One of the age old questions facing mankind is: when is war just? Or is their any such thing as a just war? There are a few fundamental principles surrounding the concept of just war. They are: a just war must be a last resort. This means that all other peaceful options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified. A war is only just if waged by a legitimate authority. A just war must be fought only as self-defense against armed attack or to redress a wrong. There must be a reasonable chance of success. This means deaths and injury that result from a hopeless cause cannot be morally justified. The consequences of the war must be better than the situation that would exist had the war not taken place. The violence and destruction must be proportional to the injuries suffered. And last, civilians must not be targets of the fighting and great care must be taken to avoid civilian casualties. These are the bases on which war can be justified. But these principles . . .
Vietnam was a country devastated and has not recovered to this day. Much of the reasoning that led America to its ultimately disastrous involvement in Vietnam, was a direct result of the jockeying for position that was such an important part of the Cold War and a desire to punish the French for their collaboration during the Second World War. )The Gulf War: an in-depth examination of the 1990-1991 persian gulf crisis, PBS Frontline, "http://www. A United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) on weapons was established, to monitor Iraq's compliance with restrictions on weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. The United States insisted that the only acceptable terms for peace were Iraq's full, unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. New York: Viking, 1983; revised edition, New York: Penguin USA, 1991. President of the United States George Bush quickly announced that the US would launch a "wholly defensive" mission to prevent Iraq from invading Saudi Arabia - Operation Desert Shield. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on the Controversial Issues in American History, Vol. The US gradually withdrew troops in the 70s, and ended operations in 1975, officially with the war being a stalemate, but evacuating personnel from Saigon as North Vietnamese troops were entering the city. While many have cited this as justification for meddling in the affairs of other nations, especially Vietnam, what gave the US the right to dictate an economic system for them? For some, there was the specter of Soviet influence gaining power, but not all communist nations were necessarily Soviet allies, for instance China and Yugoslavia. The second war that I will be exploring is the Gulf War.
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Acceptance Essays
