Unjust War Quotes
Voltaire made this quotation famous but he did not originate it. Roger de Bussy-Rabutin, another ho wrote it over 100 years earlier (See {596505} ). Sometimes the origin is attributed to Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, 1611-1675, a French General.
Referring to the Mexican War:
The Polk Administration wanted War with Mexico but felt it would not have public support if the Unites States was the aggressor. So the Army was sent to the border to provoke the Mexicans to attack first. The strategy worked and President Polk had much more support since he claimed that Mexico had attacked American Soldiers and retaliation was necessary. In the aftermath of the Mexican War, the United States obtained much new territory including the Southwestern States and Mexico was destabilized.
President Bush claimed that he authorized the invasion because Iraq had developed and were about to deploy weapons of mass destruction. After the invasion, there were no such weapons ever found. Some believe Bush had acted on bad intelligence; others argued that Bush and the neocoms had wanted to invade Iraq for other reasons, and used the bad intelligence knowingly and actually suppressed intelligence that contradicted the hypotheis of weapons readiness.
Wilkes was a strong advocate for the American cause—so much so that some in Parliament tried to deny him his seat in Parliament for his disloyal point of view.
Professor Tibi and others have also pointed out that with this definition within Islam, there is no possible justification for a non-Muslim state to war against a Muslim state even of the non-Muslim state was attacked first. However, note that most educated Muslims, like Dr, Tibi, do not hold this preposterous position. It does however illustrate why some Muslims can be outraged when Israel fights back against the thousands of rockets fired from Gaza. To them the 7000 rocket firing was a just war to make Israel a Muslim territory, but no retaliation by non-Muslims can be just.