The Forum of Phi Sigma Iota, University of South Florida, Spring 2003, Year 25. No.1

The of Phi Sigma Iota International Foreign Language Honor Society Forum Spring 2003 Year 25. No.1 The Forum, Spring 2003 • 1 The President’s Page By the time you read this, the U.S. may be at war with Iraq. Public debate on questions surrounding the possibility of war has increased dramatically in the last few weeks. Citizens in a free society are obliged to engage in such debates. It is all the more important that young people enrolled in our colleges and universities, ostensibly to learn to think and to analyze the myriad of information around them, should be so engaged. How great it would be if this current generation of young men and women could begin to reverse the trend into mindlessness that has tightened its grip on mainstream American culture over the past couple of decades. When you hear our leaders talk of preemptive strikes, the possible use of nuclear weapons, the moral imperatives for war, what goes Dr. C. Eugene Scruggs, 2002 through your mind? Do you accept the notion that there is such a thing as a just war? Can there be a just war which is begun preemptively? If a war can be considered “just”, what are the principles that make it just? Over the years, moralists and ethicists have laid out many such “principles.” Here are a few: • A just war can only be waged as a last resort. • All non-violent options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified.