A little while ago I posted up some thoughts I had about the war in Iraq. These thoughts did not come in a vacuum. At the time of the invasion I read several books on the morality of war. At the time of compiling this article had just read James Turner Johnson’s works on the […]
Entries Tagged as 'War Ethics'
More on Iraq and the Just War Theory
October 11th, 2007 11 Comments
Tags: George Bush · Iraq · Saddam Hussein · US Politics · War Ethics
9/11
September 11th, 2007 19 Comments
Today in New Zealand the date is the 11th of September, this date marks the anniversary of a terrible crime, an event where planes were used to incinerate and kill thousands of innocent civilians in order to strike terror into the heart of the local population. Those reading this will suspect that I am talking […]
Tags: Bin Laden · Darmstadt · George Bush · Hitler · Stalin · Terrorism · War Ethics · Winston Churchill
Iraq and the Just War Theory: Why I choose not to support the anti-war movement.
August 21st, 2007 3 Comments
I found this last night, I wrote it at the beginning of the US invasion in 2003 at that time I was opposed to the invasion of Iraq and was considering joining the anti-war movement in Dunedin. I posted it up on a newsgroup to get some answers from peace activists. I have edited it […]
Tags: George Bush · Saddam Hussein · War Ethics
The Question of Islam
August 21st, 2007 Comments Off on The Question of Islam
An interesting discussion of Islam has been occurring at Kiwiblog. Up until now I have merely chipped in to correct inaccurate claims about Christian beliefs and practices. However, for what its worth I’ll add my two cents worth here. Here is what I think the issues are. We are familiar with Christian teachings on the […]
Tags: Freedom of Religion · Islam · Religion in Public Life · War Ethics
Sanctions and Siege Warfare
December 14th, 2006 6 Comments
I believe that a state has the right to wage war only to defend those living with in its boarders from attack. A state’s authority to use coercion to uphold justice is limited to its borders. Just as a state has no right to prosecute a person for committing a crime committed outside NZ or to make laws regulating peoples behaviour beyond its shores, it has no duty to defend people in other countries.
Tags: Fiji · Helen Clark · Role of the State · War Ethics
Democracy and Legitimacy
December 5th, 2006 Comments Off on Democracy and Legitimacy
The founding statement of liberal political theory, John Locke’s Two Treaties of Civil Government, opens with the following statement: Reader, thou hast here the beginning and end of a discourse concerning government; what fate has otherwise disposed of the papers that should have filled up the middle, and were more than all the rest, it […]
Tags: Declaration of Independence · Fiji · John Locke · Liberty · Role of the State · War Ethics
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
