Is There Such A Thing As A Just War

War is a fight between two countries or two groups of people within the same country. I believe that war should never happen and if war does manage to happen then it should be done in a place where no civilian would get hurt. War is always going to be here and no one knows when or if there will ever be no war.

Just War is meant to protect the innocent, so that the people involved in the war are the people who chose to be involved. While on the surface this seems to be a good idea, how can we protect the innocent in an event such as a war? It would be impossible to make sure that no civilian is harmed or killed during a war because soldiers fighting naturally goes into populated areas. It also would be difficult to decide which civilians are innocent and which are not – for example, would a munitions worker who agreed and supported the war be a target? We can see that it is controversial to make a decision on who is innocent and who is not.

Just War says that the reason for going to war must be fair. According to Aquinas, ‘the war must occur only if it is to confront a real and certain danger’(Bitesize Just War), including protecting innocent life or basic human rights. However, it seems that if you are going to justify war because it is protecting innocent life, when clearly war itself is going to destroy innocent lives. It seems hypocritical also to say war can be justified if it is protecting human rights, because what about the rights of civilians who are caught in the area of fighting or bomb attacks? I think trying to justify war by saying it is for a good cause is not right and in my opinion is hard to understand because trying to get peace by bringing in war is not going to work an example of this is ‘the second Lebanon war which did not achieve anything'(The Jerusalem Post).

World War II is a perfect example of a war that is not just.This looks as if it was a Just War, but the Allied bombing of Dresden, a where for two days they dropped many bombs by  2,400 bombers that destroyed the city and killed 135,000 civilians for no military purpose, that broke the final condition.

The conditions of a Just War are:

• it must be fought by a legal recognised authority, For example a government.
• the cause of the war must be just
• the war must be fought with the intention to get good or correct evil
• there must be a chance of success
• the war must be a last resort after all negotiations have been tried and failed
• only a reasonable amount of force must be used and civilians must not be harmed

Having a just war is like saying that you can legally go in to a country and start killing their soldiers. I believe that this is not right and should not be right. Trying to get justice by taking away life is not justice it is cruel and inhumane. Just because you have been given legal authority by a state of government to kill someone to protect your own country doesn’t make it right to take away another country’s people away.

I believe that if Nations settle down their differences without war and loss of life. War gives an image no respect for human life and that it does not matter if it is taken away.I believe that eventually war will lead to the end of the world .Weapons are getting stronger with the ability to kill a millions of people in a seconds.

In my opinion I do not believe there can ever be such a thing as a just war. World War I was one of the bloodiest wars in the world’s history with millions of soldiers and civilians being killed, for what reason did millions of people die? Because one person was assassinated. Does that give you a reason to go in to a full-blown war and cause millions of children and adults to lose their life not enabling them to live the rest of there lives.

This is  why I do not agree with the state,ment ‘Is There Such A Thing As A Just War’.