Israel, Gaza?

The 10 day cease-fire in Gaza is about to be broken. More innocent lives may be lost, until today, the toll is reaching 2000 civillians. When you analyse this problem, one shouldn't weigh the question : "Who's at fault?" or condemn one party and support the other. Both should be condemned, as you know, war brings no benefit to us. It's a lose-lose situation, so why bother going into war?

Here, we analyse the Catholic Church's stand on WAR. We believe in the JUST WAR DOCTRINE. (No, it doesn't mean, going to war as you wish; rather, it means justifying reasons to go to war)

St. Thomas Aquinas developed a theory of St. Augustine into the now-known Just War Theory. It's basis is the natural moral law and it incorporates a moral evaluation before going to war and during it. Everything leading up to war and every act during it must fulfill the criteria listed. So, the Church's stand is that in theory, war is justified at times, and a just war can be waged. And the Church believes that throughout history, some wars were morally right, but many wards could've and should've been avoided.

Components of it:

1. Before War :

• Just cause - the reasons for going to war must be morally correct, such as to repel invading enemy forces, which are considered unjust aggressors(think Pearl Harbor)
• Competent authority - only authorized leaders can declare and involve the nation in war, such as prime ministers, kings and queens
• Comparative Justice - is the outcome of the war worth the damage of the war?
• Right intention
• Last resort - all other peaceful alternatives to the war must be done before resorting to war
• Probability of success - a just war demands that the hope of winning the war is reasonable
• Proportionality - The suffering due to the war must be proportionately less or smaller than the evils of suffering if there had been no conflict

2. During war :

• Proportionality - A just war uses moral means during the execution of the war, i.e. biological weapons are considered immoral because the disproportionately harm more people and in more severity than is necessary for victory.
• Discrimination of noncombatants - collateral damage must be kept to an absolute minimum and civilian population centers shouldn't be targeted.

So, there you go. Why war?