In September, Brad DeLong defended here the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as "justified terrorist acts":
***** Re: Christian scholars say no war
From: Brad DeLong (delong at econ.Berkeley.EDU) Date: Mon Sep 23 2002 - 14:48:33 EDT
> > Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - September 23, 2002
>>
>> In February, for example, 60 scholars issued a statement arguing that
>> military action in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda qualified as just war.
>
>Just out of curiousity, have the Walzer 60 piped up with anything specific
>about Iraq?
>
>Also, now that I think about it -- Walzer's overriding criteria for
>distinguishing just from unjust war is that intentionally killing
>civilians is wrong, even for the purpose of deterring aggressors. He is
>not deterred by unintentional collateral damage because if you rule that
>out, you rule out war, and then you're a pacifist and not a just war
>theorist. But how, I wonder, does he justify sanctions of mass
>destruction? Because those are effectively targeted only at civilians,
>and precisely with the aim of harming aggressors through their suffering.
>
>Michael
Walzer has a real problem with nuclear deterrence, but I think the problem is inherent in the strategy and the weapons systems--not a flaw in his philosophy.
The U.S. nukings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were as much terrorist acts as anything else. I think they were justified terrorist acts--they succeeded in bringing an end to the Japanese militarist government, and did so with a much lower butcher's bill than any conceivable invasion of Honshu. But that doesn't change their character...
Brad DeLong
<http://squawk.ca/lbo-talk/0209/1917.html> *****
On the right edge of LBO-talk, there is *no limit* to justification of *any means* -- including nukes -- used by the US government. If the US government resorts to using a nuke, legalizing torture, etc. in the near future, no doubt we will see some LBO-talkers defending them, provided they are used "judiciously," dismissing objections as mere "legalistic hand-wringing." Sometimes, I just have to wonder what's an "L" doing in LBO-talk. Quite often, the list would be more fittingly titled BO-talk, as in Belligerent Observer-talk. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>