While I'm over at Ignatius, here's Fr. Schall's latest article on just war. You know how every war has brought an advance in military know-how --including many little gadgets invented by Necessity? I am fascinated by the way the War on Terror is causing Catholic intellectuals to think through Just War theory anew. This 'graph is classic Schall.
Never to fight a war means never to take the trouble to stop unjust aggression when it happens. This is not a virtue. The history of our kind, to be sure, is filled with wars that should not have been fought. It is also – and this we forget – filled with wars that should have been fought and were not. Much evil has followed from unjust wars. Much evil has also flowed from wars that should have been fought and were not, or were, as in the case of World War II, not fought soon enough.
