Sebastian Bieber (Letters, 28 May) says we have to choose between concepts of just and unjust wars. That ought not to be our major preoccupation. What matters most is the effort we make to prevent wars starting by positive action directed to their political and social causes. Hitler grew out of an unjust political settlement. Those who could have stopped him did not take the many opportunities in the 1930s. Hitler's first international recognition came from the Vatican Concordat of July 1933. The British government refused to talk to German generals who wanted to end the Nazi regime. This country was even supplying war materials to Germany (nickel and rubber) in greater quantities than ever before up to July 1939, despite protests here. Even if the second world war started as a "just war", just war principles were frequently ignored by all participants and it was ended by two major acts of barbarism. The world now spends $1.25 trillion annually on its military. If we spent a 10th of that on war prevention and peace-building we would all be much more secure.
Bruce Kent
Movement for the Abolition of War