WW2 was just about the only war in history that was justified - discuss

[jeremyp]

In another thread, I just read the following

WW2 was just about the only war in histroy that was justified.

Was it though? Certainly, I would have thought that any war in which one side faces an existential threat is justified, at least from their point of view.

What about the Bush 41 Gulf war to kick Saddam Hussain out of Kuwait? What about the Peninsular War which resulted in Spain and Portugal being freed from Napoleon? Or the American Civil War?

[Steve H]

There's a difference between a cause being just and a war being justified. Getting Iraq out of Kuwait was just, but not important enough to cost lives. UN and UK sanctions and a stiff note from the British ambassador, at most. It's not as if Kuwait was a model democracy before, and Saddam, though a bastard, was no Hitler.

[Roses]

I don't think WW1 was a justified war, which caused WW2, a justifiable war otherwise the evil Nazis would have won.

[Steve H]

I don't think WW1 was a justified war, which caused WW2, a justifiable war otherwise the evil Nazis would have won.

WW1was disatrous: we should have stayed out of it, as we weren't directly involved. If we had, Germany would have won quickly and become masters of continental Europe (which they've more or less ended up as anyway), the Nazis would not have arisen, and there'd have been no holocaust or WW2.

[jeremyp]

There's a difference between a cause being just and a war being justified. Getting Iraq out of Kuwait was just, but not important enough to cost lives. UN and UK sanctions and a stiff note from the British ambassador, at most. It's not as if Kuwait was a model democracy before, and Saddam, though a bastard, was no Hitler.

Saddam was no Hitler really only in scale. He was quite happy to torture people and gas ethnic groups.

[jeremyp]

WW1was disatrous: we should have stayed out of it, as we weren't directly involved.

We had a treaty with Belgium to defend them in the event of them being attacked. At the time it was thought we couldn't break our word. Furthermore, nobody foresaw the huge cost of the First World War.

If we had, Germany would have won quickly and become masters of continental Europe

I think you overestimate the UK's contribution to the war in 1914. Germany almost won quickly with us in it and even without us and a bit of luck, France might have lasted several years.

(which they've more or less ended up as anyway)

No they haven't

the Nazis would not have arisen, and there'd have been no holocaust or WW2.

And Britain and France would not have been virtually bankrupted and the USA wouldn't have made a fortune out of Britain and France and the USSR might never have happened. The Twentieth Century would certainly have been very different and possibly much better.