War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

War - Essay Example Many thinkers and intellectuals, not to mention religious leaders, have lent their support to Just War and have moulded it over centuries with their contributions. According to Christian theory, resorting to war under any circumstances other than self defence is immoral, because war is never justifiable. At the same time, war is State's option and right of self-defence. "This is selective pacifism, for it does not deny the state the right of self-defense; it only denies to the Christian the right to participate. Likewise the just war theory gives no blanket endorsement of war, but demands painstaking discrimination between just and unjust causes," (Holmes, 19752). Just War is considered to be just, because it is interference on behalf of humanity, to establish peace, to repel an inhuman attack, to save people from its grips, to abolish anarchy. War for peace is also called Moral war because its intention is re-establishing morality and natural law. Just War tradition is of two fold: one is when to launch into a Just War and another, how to conduct the war without resorting into injustice. So it covers not only the motive, but also the process. The end result of winning or losing does not figure much in a Just War even though every war is fought for winning. As the means of winning the war has to be just and beyond reproach, the result of the war takes a secondary place. As morality, ethics and justice should support the origin of such a war and shape the conduction of it, its end result, even though important, cannot be achieved by mean methods. Cicero, Augustine, Aquinas, Grotius and many more philosophers stood by Just War. This includes de mands like a competent authority to declare the war, and there should be all probability of success, amongst other just causes. St. Augustine categorised them as follows: "1. Defending against an external attack; 2. Recapturing things taken; 3. Punishing people who have done wrong." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_war Just War should be conducted as an act of discrimination where only the guilty party should be punished and not the civilians and non-offenders. And this means biological weapons, weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons of any kind are ruled out. Another principle is that it should be governed by proportionality, and this means, the use of force should be proportional to the offence committed and not beyond that. Civilian deaths, attacks on helpless refugees, mass killings, and indiscriminate persecution are ruled out. Also it demands minimum force. Excessive killings, torture, destruction, upheaval, exodus, genocide, target killings of particular groups due to enmity are not allowed. Just wars demand just cause, just intent and war should be the last resort after exhausting all other means of achieving peace. There should be a lawful declaration of war and during war, non-combatant groups like medical services, ambassadors, journalists, individuals providing service like Red Cross, and organisations that provide relief to refugees and dislocated people should be spared of all

America history since 1865 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

America history since 1865 - Essay Example After the Civil Rights Movement, all practices that discriminated the negro that include laws, norms (giving up a seat to a white), segregation was ended and paved the way for policies that elevated the Negro to have more place in American society such as the Affirmative Action Policy. Today, United States has now an Afro American President to the person of President Obama which would not have been possible without the Civil Rights Movement. II. Growth of government and state power   The New Deal was a government program of action by President Roosevelt to address the Great Depression when he assumed office as a President of the United States on March 4, 1933 I believe is the most important aspect of government’s growth and state power. The New Deal lifted the United States economy from the shambles of the Great Depression to become an economic superpower after the Second World War. President Roosevelt’s New Deal involved a series of economic programs focused on Relie f, Recovery and Reform of the economy not only to address the Great Depression but also to avoid the repetition of the same. Among the programs of his new deal was the obtained permission to reopen most banks and provided grants to citizens. He instituted government initiated work programs to generate employment through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) programs. President Roosevelt also pump primed the economy with the widespread public spending on infrastructure by constructing roads, buildings, dams and similar projects through his Public Works Administration (PWA) which provided not only jobs but income in the system. He also enlisted young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to work on conservation projects. President Roosevelt’s New Deal was to elevate both income and prices which dropped during the depression. When Second World War came in 1941, President Roosevelt shifted his attention to foreign policy to address the war. The war proved to be good for the US economy because the massive spending to build war machines double the country’s Gross National Product or GNP and reduced unemployment rate from 14% to less than 2%. III. United States Foreign Affairs   I would like to discuss the immigrants in the Chesapeake and New England as America’s early experience in Foreign Affairs because these migrations in 16th and 17th century helped shape the kind of country that she is today. In between 16th and 17th century, immigrants from England settled into the eastern coast of the colonized New World which was then known as America. These groups settled into two regions which were the Chesapeake and New England areas. Chesapeake included Virginia, Maryland, New Jerseys (East and West), Pennsylvania and Jamestown while New England composed of included Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven. While these immigrants came from the same country and spoke the same tongue, they proved to become different kind of people when they settled into these regions of America. Settlers in Chesapeake came into America mainly for economic reason while immigrants in the New England settled in America to escape the religious persecution back in England. Those who went to Chesapeake were into finding riches while those who settled in New England hoped to have religious freedom which they did not have back in England. Having different reason and motivation