The Morality And Justifiability Of War

The Morality of War Author Name University Name There is a lot of debate regarding whether war is moral and justifiable or not. Some people believe that it is immoral and cannot be tolerated at any cost, while the others think that sometimes war is the only way for survival and prosperity. Over the past two decades, various authors have written books, journals or articles on the morality of war, supporting their arguments with a number of examples. In 2013, Laurie Calhoun published an article titled The Moral Fog of War where she clearly stated that war is sometimes needed to ensure the safety and protection of people. After the 9/11 attack, the United States got angry and initiated a war against Afghanistan (Calhoun, 2013). That war was needed because Al-Qaida and other similar organizations were continuously creating a mess for the world. So, the American government sent their troops to Afghanistan and Iraq and began looking for the founder of Al-Qaida, and later reported that Osama bin Laden and his group members had been killed. Was that war necessary? Yes, it was needed because sometimes when the situation gets out of control and some terrorist organizations start creating problems for others, then the fight against them becomes a necessity. If the United States had not defeated Al-Qaida as well as other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, the situation could have taken a far more severe form. The United States fought against various terrorist groups and intended to get rid of them (Calhoun, 2013). Similarly, in “A Moral Argument on Preventive War,” Donald K. Ulrich writes that the preventive war is an excellent way to prevent other parties from acquiring one’s state or nation forcefully. No country, whether the United States, Canada, England or China, has the right to interfere with the matters of others. Plus, they cannot use power or force to acquire lands belonging to other nations. If it so happens, then a preventive war becomes necessary (Ulrich, 2005). During the Cold War, for example, some prominent figures of the United States claimed that preventive war was necessary for the country’s survival, progress and success. They believed that North Korea could pose threats in the future, so they favored the preventive war and wanted to initiate it as soon as possible. In 1993, North Korea revealed that it would withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and Secretary of Defense William Perry and other public figured urged preventive attacks (Ulrich, 2005). For centuries, death counts in battles or wars have grown tremendously. Those who want peace and harmony everywhere, as well as want to save the lives of innocent people, claim that wars cannot be justified. For example, in 2017, Derek J. Penslar published an article titled The World Wars as Jewish Wars where he stated that world wars were not needed at all and that these could never be justified. World War I was initiated in 1914, right after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It came to an end in 1918. The conflict took a severe form, and nations like Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Germany were impacted to an extent. They fought against France, Romania, Russia, America, Italy, Japan, and Great Britain. Was that war needed? Hadn...