From the obit of Sir Michael Quinlan, 78, a national-security expert, in the Telegraph:
Although his discretion never deserted him, Quinlan was a man of strong moral
views, and in retirement he was much in demand both as a writer and speaker.
In 2007 he co-wrote, with former Chief of the General Staff Lord Guthrie of
Craigiebank, Just War: The Just War Tradition: Ethics in Modern Warfare.
This short thesis on the Christian concept of the Just War identifies the
traditional series of tests – just cause, proportionate cause, right
intention, right authority, reasonable prospect of success and last resort –
which must be satisfied if war is to be morally justified; then there is the
manner in which war is waged (for example, using only as much force as is
necessary); and finally there is jus post bellum – the duty to "face
up to responsibilities for what happens after military victory has been won".
All these considerations had been at the forefront of Quinlan's mind during
the prelude to the Iraq war of 2003. In their book, he and Guthrie argued
that the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq were clearly "unjust".
Writing in a different arena only weeks before the invasion, Quinlan had
said: "The issue need not have been pushed to the top of the
international agenda. Saddam was… not behind al-Qaeda's 11 September
outrages; not even the CIA believes that he would risk giving 'weapons of
mass destruction' to terrorists. Comparisons with Hitler are an ignorant
joke."
Quinlan conceded that Saddam had to be confronted for his "intolerable"
defiance of the United Nations, but "we did not have to be
straitjacketed into choosing between inaction and the extraordinary step –
unique, for the West – of starting from cold a full-scale war. Such a war
will certainly succeed sooner or later, in narrow military terms. But at
what human, economic and moral cost – and with what repercussions in the
long aftermath? In the circumstances of the Middle East, it will be a
massive rock thrown into a deep and dark pool, and we cannot be sure where
the ripples will spread or what creatures may be roused from the silt."
