Dave Smith
This is like arguing with an Aztec high priest about the morality of child sacrifice. He has no response to my obvious point so he has to lie, insult, assert that there is a doctrine, that moral considerations have already been addressed, anything but address the reality of internationally killing children.
John Spencer
Dear lord, Dave Smith thinks he is the first person to critically think about the morality of war. I will give Dave credit in saying there seems to be two realities here, his and reality. Dave wants to throw out the entire body of thought on just war theory -both the philosophical and legal framework that evaluates the morality of warfare from when to go to war (jus ad bellum) and how war must be conducted ethically (jus in bello). He thinks no one else has asked these questions before, not Thucydides, Thomas Aquinas, or any other voices until his. Then he fails to accept the fact that the legal frame work inherently reflects moral considerations by translating imperatives into binding rules that regulate how wars are fought, regardless of whether the war itself is deemed just. This is the literal definition of the Dunning-Kruger effect.