From the temporal standpoint of 1 December 2009, do the counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan by the US and NATO have a just cause? Do the insurgents in Afghanistan have a just cause?

A main thesis is that a generalised just cause principle should be applicable by all sorts of responsible agents to all forms of armed conflict. Moral deliberation should be dialectical. In addition to questioning whether our own military operations have a just cause, we should raise the just cause question from the agential standpoint of our adversaries. This dialectical approach to the subject of just cause is illustrated by the above two block quotations. Even if the US and NATO have a just cause for counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is illuminating to raise the just cause question from the agential standpoints of the various insurgents.

What should be meant by the term ‘just cause’? What just cause principle should a just war theory accept? How should we determine whether a military action has a just cause? My purpose in this chapter is to explore such questions concerning the idea of just cause.