ABSTRACT
The compilation of principles said to have instructed the president comes partially from the Christian tradition and partially from the secular just war tradition. Pacifism is the pristine conviction of Christian conscience. In contrast with Islamic and Judaic ethics, the Christian just war tradition was strangely silent about killing one's own siblings-in-faith. Augustine faced a similar charge that the Western Roman Empire collapsed before the invading barbarian hordes because of Christian pacifism and otherworldliness. Luther goes beyond Augustine's doctrine of self-defense, and speaks a more modern notion of rights against harm to one's person or property. The chapter presents the case study of war in the Gulf provides a concrete measure of contemporary Christian ethics. Though just war and even holy war rhetoric abounded, the hard commitments to do justice, love mercy, and make peace were too easily set aside in favor of national interest and military expediency.
