Name one person in the history of the world that has the moral authority to inaugurate death. Not political power, moral authority.
According to Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo says that
"`The natural order conducive to peace among mortals demands that the power to declare and counsel war should be in the hands of those who hold the supreme authority.'"(3) Those subject to the rulers must obey unless they command something against a Divine Law. For St. Augustine the only reason for waging a war would be to defend the nation's peace against serious injury. He says, "`A just war is wont to be described as one that avenges wrongs, when a nation or state has to be punished, for refusing to make amends for the wrongs inflicted by its subjects, or to restore what it has seized unjustly."(4) (The Just War Theory by Brother John Raymond)
Therefore, a lawful authority figure has the the authority to inaugurate death (according to Augustine, who also had no problems with Inquisitions, torture, et al. to root out non-adherence to Catholic "offical" doxa, and who advanced the notion that even thinking about sin was the same as actually doing it).
I thought I remembered something like this being used in the Crusades.
Moral authority and political power frequently go together (vide Reaganism vs. the "Evil Empire")
Leo said:
The fact that a concept can be abused or misused is hardly a refutation of the concept itself.
But if the concept doesn't exist materially, it is VERY difficult to achieve in a material way. Kant mentions something akin to this called "radical evil" (from Latin "radix" : root). It is an evil inescapable by humans due to our inherent freedom. There's an excellent book by Verso, S2:Radical Evil edited by Joan Copjec, which has a fantastic introduction by the editor, dealing with this subject.
Todd