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From one of Kolo's posts:
War may be inevitable, it may be thrust upon us and we certainly practice war against greater evils, but the Fathers say that war can never be "just"in any true sense of the word.

From Kosta50:
Wars, whether "just" or unjust,

Gentlemen(?), you've convinced me that we simply are not using the word "just" to mean the same thing. Indeed, I have always thought the term "Just War" was a regrettable choice of words ... it implies that somehow this war is good, and that war is bad. In fact all wars are bad. Sometimes, doing nothing is worse that resorting to war. Hence some wars are necessary, or inevitable or the fallen world forces it upon us. "Just" war theory is a philosophical tool for determining when that has happened, and how we are to conduct ourselves during the war, and how we are to determine that the war is or should be ended. (I would note that the list of wars, throughout human history, that has been "Just" from cause to completion is extremely short. It may well have zero entries.)

All of the above brings us back to the subject of Anger. We Catholics list it as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. And for good reason. " Anger always clouds our soul" and any decision thus made is made to a greater or lesser extent apart from the Grace of God. This may include a decision to go to war. As Agrarian points out, we are forced to defend ourselves because the fallen world forces it upon us, but that raises a very troubling issue. If any decision to go to war, and any killing in the course of that war is necessarily a sin we shouldn't do it. Ever. Under any circumstances. Even if the fallen world should try to force it upon us. We should indeed prefer to die than to commit a sin. Some things follow from this principle. For example, we should not prepare to engage in war either, lest a sin of anger should lead to a further sin of (multiple) murder. Such preparation would be a near occasion of sin (whether of a nation or an individual preparing to use lethal force in self defense), given our susceptibility to anger.

I just came across an article contrasting the Western/Augustinian concept of Just War with the Eastern concept of war as a sort of necessary evil. In effect, the author posits that the East never troubled itself much about the prerequisites for a Just War because rather than concern themselves with war, the Eastern Fathers focused of the benefits of Peace as a normative condition in a proper society. The article is very long so I won't even try to exerpt it. Here's a link; let me know what you think. The article is by Fr. Stanley Harakas, a noted and now retired professor at the Greek Orthodox Seminary in Brookline, Ma. The article may have been written for the USCCB, interestingly enough, but is posted on an Orthodox Peace Fellowship website (though I sort of wonder why).

http://www.incommunion.org/articles/essays/peace-in-the-fathers

The problem here is that the Western concept of "sin" has come to mean that one has broken a law, and that this rule-breaking must be punished (or at least that *someone* has to be punished for it.)

The Orthodox Church doesn't take this kind of juridical or legal approach to sin. The Greek word for sin, "Amartia," means "missing the mark." We miss the mark all the time -- by accident, by finding ourselves in situations where we have the choice between two imperfect actions, through sheer weakness. A sinner is not a criminal in need of punishment, he is a sick man in need of healing.

War is sinful, but so is disobeying one's rulers, so is failing to protect one's country, family, and neighbors. There is no one path with regard to these difficult issues -- the guidance of the Orthodox Church seems to be in the vein of "whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye" -- or "do ye," as the case may be.

Sometimes Christians, in times of persecution, have fled to the mountains, sometimes they have stood in one place and accepted martyrdom when it came to them. Neither is wrong -- saints have done each, and some have fled for a time, then later not fled and accepted death, and the Church deems both as good things. It is good to try to stay alive, since death is never a good thing. It is good to accept martyrdom for the sake of Christ.

Finally, I would point out that part of the order in this fallen world is that God gives and/or allows rulers over us. Those rulers have certain responsibilities before God that we ordinary folk do not have. They are responsible for keeping order, for punishing crimes and wickedness, and for fighting wars when necessary. This means that by definition, they do things to other human beings that in the ordinary spiritual life would be sinful. Can one call "good" the clapping of someone in handcuffs and locking them up into a prison cell? Maybe it is necessary to prevent them from murdering someone else. But is is good to hurt someone's body and lock them up in a cage?

In a sense it is indeed sinful, but it is also necessary for rules to do these things because of the fallenness of the world. It is a heavy burden on their souls, and it is why we pray especially for them in church at virtually every service and do not judge them. It is a mistake to apply things that rightly belong to the personal spiritual life to the operation of a nation. Turning the other cheek is a formula for striving toward Godliness in one's personal life -- for a king to apply this to his nation is irresponsible and wrong.

But again, a central tenet of Orthodoxy is that we do not deceive ourselves. Even when doing things that are "necessary," and that are being done to help people, we don't pretend that these things are good. When a surgeon cuts someone's abdomen open to take out a cancer, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Honestly, how can it ever be ontologically good to slice someone open and cause pain to their bodies? Yet it is done, and it is, in a sense, necessary -- although one could choose to die rather than have it done to one, or die rather than do it to someone else.

We fall short, we move on. We don't try to play games with ourselves to pretend that what is not good is really somehow good. Anyway, those are my further attempts at articulating, in a circular way, some of the Orthodox mindset. Both K. and I, BTW served in the military. I don't think either of us saw it as being anything we are ashamed of, or as a transgression of God's law. I, for one, saw it as a citizen's duty. But on the other hand, I remember even at the time being acutely aware that however necessary it might perhaps be, one couldn't say that being a part of an organization that spends its time either training for or doing things like killing people and blowing things up was the best path or means to holiness.