Re: What is a just war?

Description: There are wars to save lives.

Transcription: It sounds like St. Thomas Aquinas talking of defining a just war. It seems to me that you could run the gamut from the wars which prevent a larger travesty from happening, such as the use of WMD, or something against a neighboring state. There are wars to save lives. One could see the situation in Darfur where there’s a horrible . . . both killings and starving, raping going on, that the use of force to stop and bring that to a halt is very justified. But I’m not a philosopher. I’m certainly not a priest. I’m just a guy who tries to make cold calculations of national security in the most benign way I can.

Recorded on: 9/14/07