ABSTRACT
Just war theory provides a lens through which people can assess the moral dimensions and political implications of the Bush Doctrine. It can be plausibly concluded that America's invasion and subsequent offensive military operations in Afghanistan are largely ethical, legitimate, and strongly defensible from a just war perspective. The American invasion, occupation, and military presence in Iraq demonstrates that preventive war against potential threats that could materialize sometime in the future may not adhere to several just war principles. America lacked legitimate international legal authority to wage offensive warfare against Iraq in bypassing the United Nations Security Council. The just war analysis demonstrates that what is at stake is nothing less than a fundamental shift in America's political and moral leadership of the post-9/11 world. America's invasion of Afghanistan was largely supported by most of the world as a justified response to the Taliban's sponsorship of the Al-Qaida global terrorist network.
