Edward Feser On The Iran Bombing
Last summer ( here , here , and here ) I looked at how the neo-Thomist philosopher Edward Feser treated what he calls "just war doctrine" as it relates to the B-2 mission to bomb Iran's nuclear program and the decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan. What's increasingly troubled me about his reasoning is that he never quite spells out exactly what comprises "just war doctrine" in his arguments. He continues not to do this in a post on his blog from Saturday, The U.S. war on Iran is manifestly unjust . Instead, he cites piecemeal paraphrases, like The war clearly does not meet just war conditions. First, the U.S. cannot claim a just cause. . . . The war also does not meet the “lawful authority” condition of just war. . . . For a war to be morally legitimate, that there are realistic prospects of success must be established before the fact, and a lucky break cannot retroactively make just what was entered into unjustly. In...