September 7, 2013
The Wisdom Fund

An Attack on Syria Neither Lawful Nor Just

According to the Charter of the United Nations:

No State or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State. Consequently, armed intervention and all other forms of interference or attempted threats against the personality of the State or against its political, economic and cultural elements, are in violation of international law.

The Catholic church's criteria for a Just War:

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.

According to University of California professor Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions: "The Koran's definition of a Holy War is virtually identical with that of a Just War in the Canon Law of Catholicism."

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The UN High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change defined terrorism as any action intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organisation to do, or abstain from, any act.

["There is no 'just war,'" the some 80 participants of the conference state in an appeal they released Thursday morning.

"Too often the 'just war theory' has been used to endorse rather than prevent or limit war," they continue. "Suggesting that a 'just war' is possible also undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacities for nonviolent transformation of conflict."--Joshua J. McElwee, "Landmark Vatican conference rejects just war theory, asks for encyclical on nonviolence," ncronline.org, April 14, 2016]

[There is in fact a simple answer to when to use force: it is to defend the United States itself against a clearly defined threat to the country or to a genuine vital interest.--Philip Giraldi, "The Legacy of United States Interventionism: What Iraq teaches us," unz.com, October 11, 2016]

[Meanwhile, the Americans, $20 trillion in debt, running $800 billion trade deficits, unable to fix their health care system, reform their tax code, or fund an infrastructure program, prepare to fight new Middle East war.--Patrick J. Buchanan, "Are America's Wars Just and Moral?," antiwar.com, July 25, 2017]