Who decides when war is just?

We can all agree that the British soldiers who were killed by the colonist in the “Revolutionary War” were not evil men. They simply worked for and represented the foreign government that was treating the colonist unjustly.

We can also agree that the 140 humans Chris Kyle, The American Sniper gunned down, men of military age, unarmed Iraqi men, were also not evil men. The U.S. government sent U.S. snipers to Iraq in 2003 with the instructions to take out unarmed civilian “men of military age” because they could be or become soldiers who would take up arms against the U.S. military. This is how war works.

If you are going to believe war exists and people have the right to war under certain circumstances, who decides when it is right? Do only the White supremacists get to decide when war is acceptable?

When Micah Johnson killed five Dallas police officers, his mindset unfolded the same as the “Revolutionary War” and the “Iraq War” unfolded, seeing those connected to his enemy as fair targets. This is not my justifying violence or the killing of anyone, this is just an observation of how war works.

In Iraq any male Iraqi was seen as connected to Saddam by simply being a man and was a fair target. What Johnson did was the same thing: Who are the cowards? Who are the mentally ill? Who are the ones who get access to war?

Micah Johnson, seeing the police as his enemy, makes more sense than Chris Kyle seeing unarmed Iraqi men as his enemy. Yet they made a movie about Kyle.

 

Frank Erickson lives in Minneapolis.