Immoral War?

Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Office of Social Development & World Peace, Letter to President Bush on Iraq, September 13, 2002
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/bishops.htm

There are no easy answers. People of good will may apply ethical principles and come to different prudential judgments, depending upon their assessment of the facts at hand and other issues. We conclude, based on the facts that are known to us, that a preemptive, unilateral use of force is difficult to justify at this time. We fear that resort to force, under these circumstances, would not meet the strict conditions in Catholic teaching for overriding the strong presumption against the use of military force. Of particular concern are the traditional just war criteria of just cause, right authority, probability of success, proportionality and noncombatant immunity.

Wendell Berry's "The Failure of War"
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1207-01.htm

In a modern war, fought with modern weapons and on the modern scale, neither side can limit to “the enemy” the damage that it does. These wars damage the world. We know enough by now to know that you cannot damage a part of the world without damaging all of it. Modern war has not only made it impossible to kill “combatants” without killing “noncombatants,” it has made it impossible to damage your enemy without damaging yourself.

The Catholic Catechism on Just War
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a5.htm

2309: The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:

- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;

- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;

- there must be serious prospects of success;

- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine.

Just War Doctrine
http://www.catholic.com/library/Just_war_Doctrine_1.asp

A useful summary of the doctrine, though the author seems in a bit of a rush to conclude "The U.S. is now committed to the principles of the just war" (though, being committed to the principles and actually waging war under them are separate matters). Much more supporting evidence for this would be useful, especially in light of: the adminstration's deceptive rationale for beginning the war; the morally insupportable "preventive war" strategy; the Abu Ghraib crimes and all the fancy dancing around the torture issue; other war crimes committed by U. S. troops, the failure of the administration to reasonably foresee an extended occupation and transformation of Iraq into a breeding/training ground for "terrorist" forces; the long-term death and destruction imposed on the Iraqi people (more than 80,000 deaths)