A pre-emptive strike is military action taken by a country in response to a threat from another country - the purpose of it is to stop the threatening country from carrying out its threat.
A pre-emptive strike is military action taken by a country in response to a threat from another country - the purpose of it is to stop the threatening country from carrying out its threat.
A pre-emptive strike is military action taken by a country in response to a threat from another country - the purpose of it is to stop the threatening country from carrying out its threat.
A pre-emptive strike can conflict with the doctrine of the just war in two ways:
One example is the Six Day War of 1967. Israel was the first to use military force, when it attacked the Egyptians. Egypt had not used force against Israel, so Israel appeared the aggressor and in the wrong. But Egypt had carried out the following actions before Israel struck:
You may think that this level of threat provides a moral justification for attack.
One ethical expert (Michael Walzer) has put forward some conditions that he thinks must be satisfied to justify a pre-emptive strike:
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