The American Hypocrisy of Just War

 A recent revelation about the use of a new state-of-the-art projectile system in the opening phases of the war against Iran by Washington represents a wanton violation of the Just War tradition America claims to wage its war by.

Pranay Kumar Shome

Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is the name Washington has given to a new cutting-edge offensive ballistic missile system. Designed and manufactured by the defense giant Lockheed Martin, the missile has a range of 60-499 kilometres with an Insensitive Munitions (IM) energetic payload to withstand extreme external stresses. It has been designed to be compatible with the MLRS M270 and HIMARS family of launchers.

While the American government and the military have described the missile system as an “engineering marvel”, it is anything but that. In fact, its use in the opening days of America’s illegal war against Tehran has brought to the fore some startling revelations that clearly undermine the just war principles that Washington espouses to follow in its overseas military campaigns.

By camouflaging the indiscriminate use of lethal weapon systems against civilian populations in the name of “precision engineering”, Washington has demonstrated that the just war tradition remains a convenient tool to be invoked when it suits its interests and violated when it doesn’t

Jus in Bello Ignored

Jus in Bello is a Latin phrase that means the ‘right conduct in war.’  This term argues that in a war, the state actor must ensure that its campaign strictly adheres to certain principles that would ensure that the war waged is not only humane, but is carried out in a just manner that minimizes harm to non-combatants.

The first condition is proportionality—it denotes that the state actor must ensure that its offensive campaign is broadly in accordance with the amount of force the belligerent against whom the war is being waged uses. On this parameter, Washington failed terribly. This is evident from the fact that Washington’s use of this ballistic missile system, whose range is well over a hundred kilometres exponentially expands the scale of destruction far beyond what is actually required to fulfil a military objective.

The second condition is distinction. This principle argues that in war it is absolutely essential for the state to distinguish combatants from non-combatants. However, Washington failed here as well. Designed to destroy heavy command centers, deeply buried concrete nodes, and hard-to-destroy bunkers, the missile’s deployment in heavily populated civilian areas is symptomatic of how little Iranian lives matter for Washington. Upon hitting a target, the missile is designed to have a blast radius of up to 50 meters (164 feet). Three missiles, which struck the southern Iranian city of Lamerd caused three times more damage than missiles of this class. This impact resulted in the deaths of 21 civilians, including seven children. The missile is designed to explode in midair and move hundreds of thousands of metal pellets in all directions at very high speeds.

Wanton Violation of Jus Ad Bellum

While Jus in Bello is concerned with the proper conduct of war, Jus Ad Bellum is concerned with the “right to go to war”. It posits that war must be a measure of last resort, characterized by the minimization of aggressive posture while remaining strictly committed to the preservation of civilian life.

The deployment of a ballistic missile system like this undermines this commitment. Launched from the MLRS and HIMARS family of launchers, this system is designed to eliminate the possibility of loss of pilots’ lives. Therefore, by unleashing destruction through the use of such lethal kinetic weapons that insulate Washington’s military personnel from bodily injury, the PrSM is a conduit for unleashing mayhem on civilian populations that resist Washington’s diktats.

In conclusion, it can be asserted that by camouflaging the indiscriminate use of lethal weapon systems against civilian populations in the name of “precision engineering”, Washington has demonstrated that the just war tradition remains a convenient tool to be invoked when it suits its interests and violated when it doesn’t. It serves as a warning to the rest of the world, particularly the Global South, that the Just War tradition is a rhetorical shield used by Washington and its acolytes to justify their naked imperial designs.

Pranay Kumar Shome, a research analyst who is a PhD candidate at Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar, India