Since the dawn of the Cold War in the late 1940s, American citizens have lived, with few exceptions, on a permanent war footing. We have spent trillions of dollars preparing for war and trillions more fighting them. These wars have led to huge costs in terms of soldiers killed and wounded, massive civilian casualties, and millions of people displaced. American citizens who are poor have also suffered because of domestic program cuts, and our children will be paying the debt incurred from this fighting for years to come.

The Just War Tradition sets criteria for a war to be just. The goal of this ancient tradition, which comes primarily from the Roman Catholic Church, is to limit the use of military force in resolving international conflicts. Historically the tradition has involved two sets of criteria: rules defining a just war, and rules for limiting a war once in progress. The list that follows represents a summary of this fifteen-hundred-year tradition.

• War is just only if it is fought in self-defense. This norm has now been enshrined in the United Nations Charter. War is unjust if a state initiates violence, fights to achieve domination, or acts exclusively in its own self-interest. The only exception to self-defense is military intervention to end genocide or to prevent a humanitarian disaster.
• War is just only if it is waged as a last resort. A good faith effort must be made to resolve the dispute peacefully.
• There must be a reasonable likelihood of success.
• The war must be waged by a duly constituted state actor.
• The use of military force must not create evils greater than the evil to be eliminated.
• Once the war is in progress, a good faith effort must be made to minimize civilian casualties. Prisoners must be treated humanely.
• The use of biological and nuclear weapons is outlawed.

When applied to the last three wars we have been involved in, one war meets the test, one fails, and one is shrouded in ambiguity. The Iraq war clearly fails the test. It violates norms 1 and 2. An honest evaluation of what has transpired since the war began in 2003, indicates there are problems with norms 5 and 6. Most Christian groups have concurred with this assessment.

With regard to Afghanistan, it passes the test for the first norm relating to self-defense. As the war has dragged on endlessly, however, considerable moral problems have developed with norms 5 and 6. Though most people have forgotten it by now, the Clinton administration intervened militarily in Bosnia in 1995. The goal of this intervention was to end the ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and systematic rape among the warring factions with a particular focus on Serbian atrocities. This war passes all seven criteria set out in the Just War Tradition.

There are two significant problems with the Tradition as a limiting device for interstate violence. The first is that the norms are general and open to widespread interpretation. Wayne Grudem in Politics According to the Bible applies the Tradition to all the wars we have fought in over the last seventy years and justifies each one. I solve the problem of widespread interpretation by applying the strong anti-war bias found with the prophets and in the New Testament when interpreting the criteria of the Just War Tradition. When used in this way, the Tradition exposes several wars over the last seventy years that were both unjust and unnecessary.

The second problem is that state interests and military requirements always seem to win. Our national security elite uses fear to justify excessive military spending and to sell reckless and unnecessary wars. The first answer to the dangerous culture of American militarism is to point out an objective truth that needs to be stated and restated for everyone to hear. No state currently threatens the territorial integrity of the United States. The only existential threat to American national security comes from nuclear weapons possessed by Russia and China. No wars in history have been fought over this threat. Mutual assured destruction works.

The second answer to the fear problem is to relate to God. Because Jesus does such a good job of that, he is able to repeatedly tell his disciples to “fear not.” When I am at peace with myself and, in quiet, opening my heart to the love and goodness of God, fear disappears from my consciousness. While fear would certainly take over my being if I learned that Russian nuclear submarines were headed for the East Coast, I trusted my instinct fourteen years ago that said Saddam Hussein did not pose a threat to American security, and that an invasion of his country would result in negative consequences that would overwhelm the good achieved by his removal.

Most Christians do not feel comfortable criticizing our national security policy. Though often skeptical of military adventurism, they feel they do not know enough about the specific issues involved to take a firm stand. You do not have to be an expert to trust skeptical instincts that come from God.  God is also tugging at me with the suggestion that billions of dollars which belong to the poor are wasted each year on excessive defense spending. It is time we tell our political leaders in no uncertain terms that we will no longer tolerate military adventures that violate a biblically grounded interpretation of the Just War Tradition. If we fail to make ourselves clear on this matter, I think it safe to assume that our national security elite will soon invent a new crisis that demands military intervention.