Causa Belli: Why We Fight

An ongoing survey of the current political, cultural and philosophical debate surrounding the War on Terror. Who are we fighting? Why are we fighting? What are we defending?

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Shouldn't it be "Casus Belli"?

Depends on what you want to say. "Casus belli" means "the cause for war." In just war theory parlance it's used to denote the reason for starting the war, i.e., whether it is morally justified or not. "Causa belli" means--as confirmed by Erasmus scholar Dr. Charles Kovich--something like "on account of war." That works, for the purposes of this blog. I got the name for my blog from the poem "Causa Belli," by Andrew Motion, poet laureate of the United Kingdom. He wrote the poem in January of 2003, when the invasion of Iraq was becoming ever more imminent. Here it is in its entirety:

Causa Belli
They read good books, and quote, but never learn
a language other than the scream of rocket-burn.
Our straighter talk is drowned but ironclad;
elections, money, empire, oil and Dad.

Joseph Bottum, book critic for The Weekly Standard, wrote a scathing review of the poem.

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