Is There a Just Cause for War Against Iraq?

John Langan

Critics of just war theory often ask if the proponents of the theory have ever been able to discern in advance whether a proposed war is just or not. Conscientious officials and military personnel, anxious that their actions meet the test of justice, ask similar questions of those of us who discuss just war theory as part of our academic work. It is, of course, easier to demand answers than to arrive at them, because wars are necessarily controversial and are fought under conditions of ignorance and uncertainty. Hindsight is genuinely useful when it enables us to better understand the evolution of our understanding of a complex conflict and also the process by which we came to form a moral judgment on a shifting reality. It is not reasonable to expect theories, however rooted in military history they may be, to dissolve the fog of combat. It is reasonable, however, to ask those who expound them to alert us to some of the morally troubling aspects that are likely to arise as we move from public deliberation toward the actual use of force.

In contrast to the public discussion that preceded the Gulf War of 1991, there has not been much use of the language of "just war" in the public debate or in the administration's arguments that there must be an immediate regime change in Iraq. A recent exception is the letter sent by Bishop Wilton Gregory to President Bush on September 13, 2002. I will not comment on Bishop Gregory's letter, which he sent in his capacity as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and has an official authority and a political weight that a scholarly comment cannot have. My own interest is in exploring certain questions that arise as we apply just war criteria to the current situation. In doing this, I am, of course, looking into a future about which our knowledge is quite limited. Although the precise way in which the war would be conducted has been the topic of vigorous speculation and of surprising leaks, no one can speak with certainty as to how the course of a war will actually proceed. Many of the details of the present situation are unknown even to specialists on Iraqi affairs and U.S. military planning.

The first requirement that any proposed conflict must meet is that there be a just cause for which the war is to be fought. In the absence of a just cause, there can be no just war, so this will always be the most fundamental requirement. It is here that the administration's proposal to invade Iraq in order to bring about a regime change in Baghdad runs into its first serious difficulty…

John Langan, S.J., is Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Professor of Catholic Social Thought in the School of Foreign Service and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.