Justice in the mire

The United States-Iran war is dragging on, and the feared next step is becoming more explicit: Washington is trying to draw other countries into its pressure campaign against Tehran. South Korea and Japan are identified as the most likely targets.

Iran has reacted sharply. It has declared that any country participating, even to a limited degree, will be treated as an enemy. In South Korea, opposition has also emerged to any troop deployment, with critics asking why the country should be pulled into a war they describe as one the United States started at its own discretion.

The article then turns from the immediate crisis to the meaning of justice. Living justly is presented as an admirable ideal, but sacrificing one’s life for justice and enduring great inconvenience or loss is described as something approaching the life of a saint.

Korea has historical experience with that pursuit. During the late Joseon period, creating a “state of sages” became one of the country’s national agendas. News that Qing China had lost the Opium War and surrendered to Western powers reached Joseon, but rather than weakening its resolve, the shock led the country to strengthen its determination to close itself off. The article begins from this history to question what justice demands when moral principle carries serious national risks.

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Deployment is absolutely unacceptable. Why should we be dragged into a war the United States started at will?