Jerry Slater, professor at SUNY Buffalo, has published an important essay, A Perfect Moral Catastrophe: Just War Philosophy and the Israeli Attack on Gaza in Tikkun Magazine, examining Israel’s moral claims in pursuing Operation Cast Lead.  Slater uses just war theory as the basis with which ...

Ben Myers reminds us of when Stanley Hauerwas literally scared the hell out of some teenagers.  Father Chris takes strong objection to Hauerwas' anti-patriotism, and Lee chimes in here. My take begins in the car ride home from church Sunday.  "We should have sung The Star Spangle...

Megan McArdle is attending a conference in Aspen with Stephen Carter, who is giving a talk on proportionality under the Just War theory. I can't tell how much of this is Carter and how much of this is McArdle, but I had to respond to this passage from McArdle's post: Carter is now discussing the pro...

Today marks the 66 anniversary of the battle of Midway Island, a key engagement that, if it had gone the other way, would have potentially crippled the U.S. naval capability for good. I know you guys are more into looking at the future of defense, but sometimes I think it's good to step back and rem...

The first comment at this Ivy Bush post is a pretty good example of the blinkered world view that keeps the fiasco in Iraq chugging along.  The commenter boils down "the Muslim World," a truly vast world that stretches from Lagos to Jakarta, encompassing deserts, jungles, and frigid m...

We live in interesting times.  Consequently, I can't afford to get upset about a lot of stuff that, in a more ordinary epoch, would generate shock, awe, wonderment, and the like.  A case in point:  the recent shootings at the church and missionary center in Colorado.  I heard, al...

A personal reflection. Folks, this might come to you as a shock, but I'm seriously considering some sort of pacificism – albeit not one which will include an absolute refusal to bear arms or defend the country. I am a military man, after all, and always will be, even after I retire. How can this b...