Can war ever be justified ?

[sandybay]

Hearing about the air raids in Georgia reminds us yet again what the horrors of war are. Death and ruined lives for innocent civilians.

Do you think war is ever justified ? I believe some religions including Christianity have the concept of a 'Just War'.

My own view is that the Second World War needed to be fought.
The genocide, appalling cruelty and empire building of the Nazis had to be stopped.

However wars like in Vietnam were purely fought because of political dogma and therefore were morally wrong.

What do you think ?

[Rosa]

I used to think I was a pacifist, but I need to come to terms with a 'but'. First, to my mind, warfare is collective psychopathy. Britain has an aggressive history of appalling domination. Now we're signed up to various 'peace keeping' pacts with our so-called allies, which in reality results in countries being dragged into conflict whether its citizens like it or not.

So I vote Green, not only for environmental reasons, but because its the only votable political party in the UK that is opposed to warfare full stop. However, there's a compromise - they do believe in maintaining an army purely for defence purposes, just like Sweden, Switzerland and a few other more enlightened nations. True pacifism, I believe, would not even maintain a defence force.

[eleanor2]

in an ideal world no.the thing is who knows when the next psychopathic dictator is going to come along and decide to take over your country.he wont care who he kills. i would sure be glad of an army to defend us.

[Crocus]

I think this question is a lot of people would want to be answered and I, for one, don't think war can be justified. Why do people want to kill each other just because they believe and think differently? I don't understand it at all.

[sandybay]

Hit the nail on the head there Pippa. Dingbat Thatcher managed to raise her popularity by war. Not quite sure Gordon Brown quite equals Pol Pot, Stalin and Hitler.
Give him time though.

The thing with women is we get het up, we call names, maybe in extreme circumstances we pull each others hair and spit but the drive to make up, or find the middle ground is quite strong. Are the sort of women who want to make a career in high politics likely to have a bit more testosterone than the rest of us ? Golda Meir and Indira Ghandi were no pushovers.

The Dalai Llama has said he doesn't want armed conflict against the Chinese.
That is such an admirable stance. But if Tibet had been more armed in the first place would they have been such a pushover ? Bullies are always going to take the lollipop from a baby, not a weightlifter on steroids.