Modern applications of just-war theory generally fail to recognize the “hidden” cultural forces which, because they are amplified by mass media, easily distort public perception of political reality.  Applying ‘Augustinian’ (or other) just-war criteria to any modern political situation without taking such distortion into account amounts to reading Augustine in a hall of mirrors, where much of the symmetry between pirates and super-powers is skewed beyond recognition.  Failure to apply a hermeneutic of this order to just-war theory risks allowing it to be subverted by right-wing apologists in order to justify what are essentially crusades.

  

This quotation is from Robert Dodero’s “Pirates or Superpowers: Reading Augustine in a Hall or Mirrors”