Looking at our past, it's clear that, no matter how much we may hope and philosophize to a different effect, war is inherent in our nature. Whether it be inter-tribal or international, war has, unfortunately, become one of the trademarks of human existence since our species's emergence in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago. We are not alone in this aspect. Other highly evolved social animals, such as chimpanzees and dolphins, exhibit similar capabilities of forming aggressive coalitions. The presence of these features in our evolutionary cousins and over thousands of years of human history reveal that war-like tendencies are built into our genome. It's easy to be high-minded and believe that the cognizance of the horrors of war makes us above these genetic influences, but rewinding back to September 11th, 2001 proves otherwise. Humans have bound themselves into groups to ensure that the genes of the body as a whole will have a greater chance of getting passed on, and when this essential function is threatened by violence or conflicting interests from another group, the instinctual 'righteousness' of war kicks in and many members of the group feel that it is their 'duty' to fight. The group is the most important unit in the human psyche, not the self. Thus, even when many of its own soldiers die and innocent civilians on the other end are brutally killed, a nation can still find a way to call its war 'righteous' and adulate its hired killers as 'heroes' even though in reality their actions will have exceedingly little net effect on the nation's residents. Whether you like to admit it or not, you have at least once taken a sort of quiet pleasure in hearing of violence taken against an individual or group that has previously threatened one of your own. Many of us would, whether vocally or merely internally, celebrate the raiding of a terrorist camp that resulted in its members' deaths, even if only for a brief moment. If not that, then the death of members of some other group: the KKK, the Army of God, the Jewish Defense League; whatever group that utilizes violent tactics against American people to achieve its goals. This morbid sentiment, which is present in all of us, regardless of individual noble-mindedness, demonstrates the power of the instinct to ensure the overall wellbeing of the group has over even our own morality.
What I mean to show from all of this is that discussing whether war can be 'righteous' or not merits little when in the mind of some group the war is absolutely necessary and righteous without question. We might look at conflicts between other nations and think that their reason for going to war is absurd, but when it comes down to it we feel perfectly justified in pursuing our own conflicts when we feel someone has infringed upon us. From an objective perspective, all this warring and conflict might seem gratuitous and frankly petty, but when one's own group comes into the fray that objectivity evaporates. Even when a nation goes to war and some of its own residents oppose it, that does not mean they are without the innate desire for carnage given the right circumstances. Our fighting instincts evolved in the Pleistocene era, when much smaller bands of people would war with each other and each member's stake would be much larger. It's sometimes difficult for our Pleistocinian minds to grasp the value of a war between millions of people when they are programmed to deal with small-scale scuffling, but you can bet that if the same people were placed back in that era's conditions and their group directly attacked, their pacifism would erode rather quickly.
(I'm sorry if this makes no sense. I was exhausted when I wrote it so please forgive me)
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