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War is a reality of nowadays world. Every day we hear from TV, read in newspapers, and are told by our acquaintances about some horrible events that happened in one or another part of the planet. Constant bloody tensions between Israel and Palestine, terrorist acts in Sri Lanka, and the terrible event of September 11th in the US are only some examples of aggression in today’s society. In 2002, when I was still in Russia, I had heard for the first time about a possibility of war in Iraq. To tell the truth, I did not take it seriously because it was difficult to believe. Besides, I was going to study in the US, a possible initiator of war, and I did not want to think about one more catastrophe on the planet. But now war in Iraq is not a possibility, it is a reality. Can this war be justified by anything? Can we, as Christians, consider this war to be a just war? These are the questions that worry many Christians all over the world. But the phrase “A Just War” sounds like an absurdity. How can war be just if it brings evil to people? The Bible can give us an answer for this question.

First of all, the world we live in nowadays is “an estate of misery sin and misery.” (The Shorter Catechism, Answer 17) When God created earth and heaven, He intended to place people in a Paradise where there would be no place for misunderstanding between people and nations, no place for horrors of war, and no place for deaths of ones we loved. “Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.” (Answer 13) “All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.” (Answer 19) This gives an explanation why people nowadays suffer from military conflicts in different parts of the world. War has always been an essential part of reality where the world is based on the power of man and not God. But we, as Christians, should always do everything possible to cherish peace in the world. “It is lawful for Christians …to maintain piety, justice, and peace.” (The Book of Confessions 6.120) But sometimes it is impossible to avoid war. Deeply believing in God, I think that every war, no matter whether it is just or unjust, brings suffering to mankind. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” (Genesis 9.2) Faith in God can bring mankind to the understanding that peace is the right way to live. “God’s reconciliation in Jesus Christ is the ground of the peace, justice, and freedom among nations which all powers of government are called to serve and defend.” (The Book of Confessions 9.45.) But the 69th Answer in the Shorter Catechism says: “The sixth commandment forbiddeth the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbour, unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto.” What does the word “unjustly” mean? Probably, there are ways to take away somebody’s life justly. In fact, there are times when it is necessary, just as self defense and defense of one's family and community are morally necessary. From the earliest events in human history all the way through to modern times, human communities have engaged in armed conflict as a method to resolve problems. But there has always been a tendency to evaluate the necessity of war, and its righteousness. To meet the demands of justice, war and the tactics and weapons of war must first submit to moral examination. The basic theory, which has arisen within Western culture to evaluate the legitimacy of military action, is called just war theory. The just war theory has received widespread acceptance both within Western culture and in the international community as a means by which a war may be determined to be justified or not. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (A.D. 356-430) was the first person who defined the term of just war. For Augustine, war was a logical extension of the act of governance. And governance itself was, as St. Paul wrote in Romans 13.1-7, ordained by God. This, however, does not mean that all wars are morally justifiable. Augustine wrote, "It makes a great difference by which causes and under which authorities men undertake the wars that must be waged." He gave several criteria to distinguish a just war. All of them are divided into two groups: Ius ad Bellum (the Justice of Resort to War) and Ius in Bello (the Justice of the Conduct of War) what are these criteria? Does the current war in Iraq fit these criteria? Let’s look into the situation closely.

I think that the most important factor that determines the Justice of Resort of war is just cause. “It is lawful for Christians …to maintain piety, justice, and peace…” But “they may lawfully, now under the New Testament, wage war upon just and necessary occasions.” (The Book of Confessions 6.120) Of cause, every person in the world should do his or her best to maintain peace, as it is said in the Book of Confessions. But sometimes the use of force is necessary to prevent more horrible results. For instance, let’s imagine the situation that today is September 10th, 2001. The US Government has learned that Islamic kamikazes would attack the USA the way they did on September 11th, 2001. So in this case there is a direct threat to the lives of innocent people. Prevention of such an attack is a just cause for war against those who initiated that tragic event that made the world tremble in horror. As a Christian, I believe that in this situation it would be more unjust not to go into the war because in that case more people would suffer. In Russia the war in Chechnya has lasted for almost 10 years. When the first military campaign began in 1994, the world did not approve such an action by the Russian Government because everybody was talking about the human rights of Chechen people but nobody was thinking about the amount of sufferings they brought to Russian people. The military action can be justified by the fact that the lives of common people who live near the border with Chechnya were always under the constant danger of death. During those years Russian citizens experienced many terrorist acts from the side of Chechen extremists. I recall the recent horrible event in Moscow when almost 900 people were captured by terrorists in the theater. They were kept there for several days. Those were some of the most horrible days, not only for victims and their relatives but also for the whole of Russia. I remember my family and I watching news every free minute to find out what was going on in the theater. Our hearts were full of sorrow and helplessness. What could we do to lessen the sufferings of those people? Praying and asking God to help people was the only thing left. ”Pray for the peace… For the sake of my brothers and friends I will say, “Peace be within you.” (Psalm 122.6-8) This is only one example of the terrible tortures that Russians had to pass through. Bombing of houses of common civilians in 1999 and the explosions in the subway station in 2001 in Moscow are among events that can illustrate what was going on in Russia. I do not approve of all the actions of our Government during the Chechen campaigns but one thing is rather clear to me: to avoid such actions in future is just cause for war. Just cause is classically understood to refer to self-defense. In the case with the current situation in Iraq the cause of war is not transparent, and it does not refer to self-defense. “It is noteworthy that even respected US politicians, in particular, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, have said that the strike against Iraq is the first war in the history of the US started by the US in the absence of a direct threat.” (Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) There was no need to launch military action in order to answer the key question that was put by the international community, namely, does or does not Iraq have weapons of mass destruction and if it does, what should be done and within what timeframe in order to liquidate them?

The second indispensable element of just war is right authority. The war can only be waged by a legitimate authority. People or terrorists cannot wage wars that can be justified. In our modern world it is difficult to say what is a legitimate authority but I think that the only authority nowadays that could approve the invasion in a sovereign country is the United Nations. I am confident that the central role in resolving the crisis situations in the world, including the situation in Iraq, must belong to the UN Security Council. From a strictly legal point of view UN member states actually have given up their right to wage war, since they are bound by Article 2.4 of the UN Charter, which says, "all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force". Almost 60 years ago the majority of countries agreed that they would act according to the decisions of the UNSC. Why should we break this rule now? But the military strike happened in defiance to the opinion of the UN Security Council, the majority of the world community members and religious leaders who had opposed a military solution of the problems in Iraq. So that shows that a criterion of having legitimate authority cannot be applied to the military attack on Iraq.

A just war can be fought with right intentions. The goals of the war should be to save people and give them freedom but not to gain control of another nation. There are a lot of talks about economic and political interests of invaders of Iraq. But as a Christian, I believe in the good intentions of people. I do hope that people who lead the coalition that attacked Iraq have good thoughts in their minds.

War should be waged only as a last resort after numerous attempts to resolve a problem peacefully. All the possible ways should be tried before the final decision to go to war is made. “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” (Romans 14.19) In the case of Iraq, there were ways to avoid the war. The following information in this paragraph is based on the official documents of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (www.mid.ru) and the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin (www.president.kremlin.ru). The main question that was raised by international community is whether or not Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Several resolutions of the Security Council, especially Resolution 1441, that were unanimously adopted by the UNSC and which enabled international inspectors to begin their work in Iraq, could help answer this question. Iraq did not make any obstacles to the work of inspectors. During the four and a half months of their work in Iraq, UNMOVIC and IAEA inspectors achieved considerable progress. The results of this work are well known, and an example is the elimination of Al-Samoud-2 missiles. Each time it was becoming more and more obvious that the inspectors had everything they needed to successfully accomplish their mission and complete the process of Iraq's disarmament by peaceful means. There were ways to resolve the problem peacefully without any military actions. Besides that by the start of the operation Iraq posed no threat to the neighboring states or to other countries and regions of the world because especially after a ten-year blockade it was a weak country both militarily and economically. It was still less of a danger because international inspectors were working there, so they could control the situation. On the contrary, of late their activities had produced serious positive results. Most regrettably, this possibility was ruined exactly when Iraq was ever more actively cooperating with the inspectors and when UNMOVIC and IAEA had presented to the SC their work programs, the implementation of which allowed for giving a conclusive and objective answer to the question whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction or not. This information makes it clear that war was not a last resort in this situation.

The principle of the proportionality should be followed when nations go into a just war. There should be a confidence that war will bring more good things than harm. Probably when the coalition intended to go into the war it was guided by the ideas of a better future for the Iraqi people after the elimination of Saddam Hussein’s regime. This is one of the necessary conditions for waging just war, but it is insufficient by itself.

One of the most important criteria is relative justice. No one state can act as if it possesses absolute justice. Actually that’s why the UN is of such great importance nowadays. It reveals the will of many nations that make decisions altogether. And it can be the only body that protects sovereignty of nations.

Reasonable hope is among the criteria. Just war can be fought if there is a large possibility of success. There was a promise of the coalition that the war would end in three days. But now the world is witnessing 10th day of war, and there is much uncertainty that it will end in the near future.

The last criterion of Ius ad Bellum is open declaration. There is no doubt that the coalition followed this criterion in its war with Iraq. There was no an intention to hide military plans, moreover, Saddam Hussein was warned about possible actions world widely.

There are two criteria of Justice of the Conduct of War. The first one is discrimination. That means that innocent civilians cannot be targets of the war. All noncombatants must be given immunity and protection. There is no doubt that the coalition is trying to avoid the casualties among civilians. But according to the projections of the UN that were published in its report about 10 of 26 million Iraqis will be put into some level of danger. In military actions themselves there will be about 500,000 casualties; 100,000 people among them will be killed in military strikes and 400,000 will suffer from the destruction of infrastructure. The majority of them are common civilians. Taking into the consideration the fact that Iraq is one of the youngest nations, there will be many deaths of children. "Old people, women and children are the first victims", said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, adding, "the military speak about 'target strikes' on the military installations in Iraq, but we remember only too well the so-called target strikes delivered by the NATO aircraft in Yugoslavia, which led to the death of civilians and destruction of national shrines. Moreover, these 'target strikes' often failed to reach military targets altogether, hitting civilian buildings" (Russian Orthodox Church).

After I have looked through all the criteria of just war, I can say with confidence that war in Iraq is not a just war. Russian Orthodox Church expresses the same opinion when His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II sent letters to US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealing to do everything possible to avoid a military operation in Iraq. But the war began, and all Christians should nowadays pray and ask God to “guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Lk. 1.79).

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