ome reject the very idea of the “morality of war”.
[1] Of those, some deny that morality applies at all once the guns strike
up; for others, no plausible moral theory could license the
exceptional horrors of war. The first group are sometimes called
realists. The second group are pacifists. The task of just war theory
is to seek a middle path between them: to justify at least some wars,
but also to limit them (Ramsey 1961).