Just-War Theory Allows for No Blank Checks in Ukraine, by Phil Lawler

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Aug 18, 2023

When I teach an undergraduate course about the Church’s tradition of just-war teaching, I always emphasize how the moral questions are wrapped up in prudential judgments. No one has perfect information about the strengths and intentions of potential adversaries. No one can guarantee the outcome of a given diplomatic or military strategy. So it is rarely possible to say, with complete certainty, that this or that conflict was either just or unjust. And the difficulty of rendering that sort of apodictic judgment is exponentially greater when the battle is raging, the “fog of war” has settled in, and the information coming from the front is filtered through competing propaganda mills. …

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