No just wars?

[Wayne Johnson]

There was a very telling image on CNN last night.  It was a picture of a
10 - 11 year old boy carrying a breech-loading rifle that must have been
left over from the 19th century British Ray expeditions into the Khyber
pass.  OR.. as the Afghans do this so well at home (this is actually praise
here)...they just made some EXACTLY like the ones the Brits left behind.
They have been making guns since there have been guns.  They can copy
anything up to 75mm cannons it seems.  They forge, they mill, they grind,
they polish, they oil and after a while...a "new" Enfield or Mauser.
Something to consider.



-----Original Message-----
From: austin-ghetto-list-admin@pairlist.net
[mailto:austin-ghetto-list-admin@pairlist.net]On Behalf Of Frances Morey
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 9:24 PM
To: Roger Baker; austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
Subject: Re: No just wars?


The Civil War Series effected me deeply and made me think that there is no
such thing as a "just war". All war sucks. The poor Afgan population may go
hungry, but there sure doesn't seem to be a shortage of guns and bullets. I
hate us for planting all the land mines in their country and leaving them to
kill and maim citizen pedestrians there--that was one hellova act of
terrorism on our part in my opinion. That the land mines contain chips that
proclaim Motorola on them doesn't give me much to feel good about either.
Frances


On Mon, 29 Oct 2001 13:42:27 -0800, Roger Baker wrote:

>
>  On Monday, October 29, 2001, at 07:22 AM, Michael Eisenstadt wrote:
>
>  > Roger Baker wrote:
>  >
>  >> Hey! I'm good for another couple of rounds if you change your mind.
>  >
>  > not until we agree on just wars. that is a concept which more than
>  > a few actual wars in history are BY AND LARGE considered to have
>  > been examples of. IE despite the innocent dead winning the war was
>  > a GREATER GOOD. some examples are WW II and the recent Kosovo
>  > intervention. the latter was done with surgical exactness with the
>  > numbers of innocent dead vanishingly small both in Kosovo and in
>  > Serbia and was a VERY just war.
>  >
>  > building the Brooklyn Bridge cost the lives of dozens of workers not to
>  > mention those of the designer and his son. but one would have to be
>  > quite
>  > the purist to therefore reject the project.
>  >
>  > if you reject the very possiblity of just wars what would be the point
>  > of arguing with you?
>  >
>
>
>  "Just" wars, like beauty, may only exist only in the eye of the
>  beholder, unless
>  we agree on what determines their justness.
>
>  I have an uneasy feeling that this determination boils down to the wars
>  that
>  Mike personally approves of. If there are just wars and unjust wars (with
>  shades of gray?) then who gets to make this gravely important
>  determination,
>  and on exactly what basis?
>
>  Does it involve public opinion with in the contending
>  countries? Are wars of civilian terror through aerial bombing just? Are
>  freedom
>  fighters and martyrs ever also terrorists? I gather that wars that kill
>  lots of unwilling
>  military men that a dictator has drafted by coercion are more likely to
>  be "just" wars
>  than wars that kill the rest of the families of these same men. Why is
>  this so?
>
>  Winnability? Minimum casualties? Support of world opinion? Soundness on
>  the
>  basis of international law? Ratio of civilian casualties to armed
>  fighting men?
>
>  Campaigns conducted with extremely few casualties might be fought by
>  terrorizing
>  heads of state by sending them anthrax letters, as one obvious example,
>  making
>  such efforts very just, assuming the underlying motives were pure and
>  noble
>  enough to outweigh the comparatively few casualties on the scales of
>  justice.
>
>  Peace, Roger
>
>
>
>


"The Skinny on Weight Loss: One Woman's
True Journey to Fat and Back" by Frances Morey
Order online <www.xlibris.com/bookstore>
or by phone at 1-888-795-4274 Extension #276





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