According to the Archbishop of Canterbury, neither the Afghanistan nor Iraq campaigns complies with the doctrine of Just War. The problem, Rowan Williams told religious leaders, is that the U.S.-led coalitions in each case did not have a clear concept of what they were trying to accomplish.
Sorry, Dr. Williams, but by that standard neither world war was just, either. Notions of the specific war aims and desirable post-war international arrangements were not shared by the Allies during the conflicts, and became sources of contention towards the end and after their enemies surrendered. Obviously, the combatants had a general concept of what they were trying to accomplish but subsequent events and the discovery of new information shaped the final outcome. That’s not all together different from the current situation, though today there is more muddled thinking about whether our enemies are discrete local tyrannies, an interlocking set of international Islamist conspiracies, or something in-between. Somehow, I doubt the good archbishop will be of much help in clarifying the muddle.