I haven’t kept up with the arcana of just war theory since I realized that excuses would be made for any action the actor wished. Most of us always redraw the lines so what we are doing falls on the side of the good. Just war theorists, however, take these ideas very seriously. So, George Weigel, war supporter, has found new reasons to support the war in Iraq, since his earlier pronouncements no longer obtain, and says those who would withdraw American troops have abandoned “the mantle of moral seriousness.” He writes for First Things: The Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life (subs. req.)Editorialists at Commonweal (on Monday,) and Monsignor Robert W. McElroy in America: The National Catholic Weekly (on Friday) disagree and find the just war theory does not now hold in Iraq, if it ever did, and call for withdrawal.

More here by Peter Steinfels of the NY Times.

By the way, I see the current edition of Commonweal has an article by Andrew Bacevich, author of the important book, The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War. Without having read the article I can safely say it’s worth a look.