Thanks to Jeff McMahan (Philosophy, Rutgers) for permission to post this essay (Download Iraq_War.doc)  on the moral indefensibility of the Iraq war. McMahan (for those outside philosophy) is one of the very best and most incisive moral philosophers writing today about concrete moral and political problems, including, most recently, issues about war and killing in self-defense. (Those interested in Professor McMahan’s work ought to take a look at his book The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).) Professor McMahan tells me the essay here will also appear in the alumni publication of one of the Oxford colleges.

UPDATE: Here is Download Iraq_War.rtf  in RTF, which may be easier for some readers to access.