Carl Beijer

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Can we please distinguish between antiwar and just war politics?

www.carlbeijer.com

Can we please distinguish between antiwar and just war politics?

Defenders of US and Russian intervention are both claiming a position that rightly belongs to opponents of war.

Feb 1
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Can we please distinguish between antiwar and just war politics?

www.carlbeijer.com

I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog arguing that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the US’s intervention against it are both unconscionable and will inevitably cost more lives than they’ll save, but I’m not going to relitigate that here. Here, I’d like to just make a basic definitional point: just war arguments are not antiwar arguments. I don’t understand how anyone could object to this, first because it’s just logically true because of what “anti” means, and second because just about everyone believes in some version of just war theory. If we can just agree to use these words consistently, maybe the discourse on Ukraine will become at least marginally less ridiculous.

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