IS WAR JUSTIFIED?

To understand ethics of war, first we must think over a very basic question that is what is war? War seems to be the most destructive and horrific type of human interaction.No other venue allows people to kill each other in such massive numbers or to cause such incredible and widespread suffering. Formally speaking war is a conflict carried on by force of arms , as between nations or between parties within a nation and so on.

Now knowing what the word actually means , lets return to our initial question that is is war justified?Before answering the question lets first think of war at a smaller scale that is is killing an individual justified?Most of us would instantly answer the question in negative.But what if the deed is done for self-defense ? Answers tend to change.Similarly war may be justified if a country is forced into it .In certain circumstances it is naive indeed to believe that if we all would put down our weapons , the other side would quit fighting.When it comes to fighting for human rights and justice, war is indeed justified.

But now lets look at the other side of the coin; if a person slaps you and you slap him back doesn't make you any different from the one.What is expected from your side is that you try and find out the reason behind the person's rage and fix it in the best possible way.Gandhi once said "An eye for an eye would make the world blind". He strongly believed in non-violence. He won independence without fighting with arms .Violence is a clumsy weapon which creates more problems than it solves and leaves a trail of hatred and bitterness in which genuine reconciliation is impossible.For instance world war I  led to world war II as Germany felt shafted and alienated by the harsh treatment given at the Versailles.

Concluding on such a topic is harder than it may seem.One might think whats wrong with war if its for self-defense.But why fight when war can be avoided by compromises and negotiations.Nationalism and love for one's country is all good but why confine ourselves to boundaries like these. We can live as a united global village and get our differences solved in a more efficient way. Fighting for territory or food would just make similar us to animals and our intelligence and the title of " the top of the creation" as humans would then br in question .Therefore i conclude the war is never justified.


-Priyanka