re does just justifiable war exist some thoughts a on the non pacifist side killing to defend the innocent may be if anything more justifiable than killing in self defense i can turn my own other cheek but i have no right to turn someone else s it seems to me that if jesus had meant to teach pacifism he would have made his position more explicit he didn t tell the centurion to leave the army for instance and the nt is full of military metaphors b on the pacifist side apparently many early christians refused to fight in the roman army or stated that one should refuse if given a choice but it s not clear whether they were objecting to war per se or objecting to roman policies in modern warfare it seems to be impossible to direct attacks only at combatants bombing both conventional and nuclear kills lots of civilians it s hard to tell whether any particular war is justified at the time often it takes decades for the requisite information to become available to the general public please no email replies this is meant as a contribution to a public discussion and anyone wanting to reply should also reply publicly michael a covington associate research scientist artificial intelligence programs mcovingt ai uga edu the university of georgia phone athens georgia u s a amateur radio n tmi
