Was the war with Iraq just? Does it meet the qualifications for a just war?
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Justness of wars, as with the assignment of blame for war crimes, usually resides in the hands of the victors. Well, we managed to defeat a poorly equipped army (and air force?) with nothing more than vastly overwhelming arms and technology; we seem to still be looking for those fearsome weapons of mass destruction that were the prime justification for the invasion (and now we hear it may take a year to complete our search for them); we stood by while one of the great centers of western civilization was looted of its heritage (and we could have prevented that); and we have overseen the tragic crippling of Iraq’s infrastructure as the “coalition” struggles to develop a rebuilding plan after the war is over. Need we even mention the damage to US foreign policy throughout the world? Yes, Saddam is gone, probably, but could we have accomplished the goals without the invasion? Could the $80 billion+ spent on the war been used at home to save our struggling economy, educational and health systems, and the homeland security efforts that are seriously under funded at the state and local levels? You be the judge.