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"You really are clueless, an embarrassment to the name. Hope you're adopted." -- June Dever
"this guy is right about conserving a clue. he hasn't one and that leaves more for the rest of us." -- Jim Lovell
"Your e-mail addy... should be 'dever@getalife.net.'" -- Sponge
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| All War is Immoral - And Other Bunk |
| Posted by: dever on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 03:00 AM |
While reading Dawn Olsen's take on this whole you-still-need-to-justify-the-war-in-Iraq nonsense, I read the following gem in her comments section:
I can understand people's disaffection with the scandal, but to those of us who believe war is immoral always, and to those who found this particular invasion of a sovereign nation and the subsequent murders of innocents unjustified, Bush's lie/error/crack-fueled delusion does matter. As do the economy, the attacks on civil liberties, the inequality of GLBT Americans, etc., etc. All of it makes the case that Bush needs to be impeached.
So, with all due respect, no, we can't just move on.
Posted by Natalie at July 18, 2003 01:02 AM
I responded there, but it turned into a full scale Dever's Diatribe, so I've decided to run the response here also:
"...but to those of us who believe war is immoral always..."
You know, Natalie might have had a point in there somewhere, but I have to admit that I tuned out as soon as I read the above. Not only is the idea that war is always immoral incredibly naive, it's just flat out wrong.
As much as I'd like to live in some sort of utopian bubble where everyone lives in a state of peace and harmony, unfortunately there's a real world out there - and it's not always pretty. In fact, it's usually rather ugly. As long as there are individuals and leaders who are willing to take up arms against their fellow man to enslave or murder them, good men will be forced to stoop down to those same lows to combat them. Sure, it would have been much more pleasant had Adolf Hitler decided one day to step outside, join hands with the rest of Europe, and break out into an impromptu acapella of Kumbaya. Unfortunately, Hitler was too busy chewing up Jews into Purina Pig Chow to find the time.
There were plenty of moral justifications for removing Saddam Hussein from power, it's just rather disturbing that we didn't use any of them in our arguments to go in. In the end, it was a long overdue removal from power - complete with a plethora of reports of torture, genocide, and a pile of ignored United Nations Security Council Resolutions thick enough to keep the document shredders at Arthur Anderson working overtime. You'll be hard pressed to find any reasonable, rational person running out to buy Johnson and Johnson's No More Tears shampoo as an aid to console themselves now that he's gone.
But let's get back to the idea of moral and just warfare.
For starters, the notion that war is immoral is a relatively new concept. Up until the end of World War I, war was considered an acceptable means to settle differences. Countries have routinely entered into mutually agreed upon rules of combat (i.e. "just war tradition") in an attempt to keep warfare as "civilized" as possible, to minimize the amount of time before the countries can enter into diplomatic and economic partnerships after the dispute is resolved. One needs only look at the Geneva conventions to see the practice continues to this day.
Jus Ad Bellem / Jus in Bello
For all war to be immoral, then one must believe that no society or person is ever wrong or unjust as a basic tenet. Example: Country A invades Country B and decides to massacre the entire population. To believe taking up arms against Country A as a method to stop such a practice is immoral, one lends tacit approval to the action. Ignoring the idea that you end up saying war is immoral while standing in a moral vacuum (which is a lot like saying drilling in ANWR is bad because it'll kill the Unicorns), this tacit approval stands in direct contradiction of the judeo-christian values which influence western civilization. Catholic theology, in particular, has been a dominating force in determining the criteria for when warfare is a moral imperative through two concepts known as jus ad bellem and jus in bello.
Jus ad bellem refers to the five basic criteria used to judge is a war is, indeed, just. I'll touch on each of them briefly:
1) Just Cause. Why are you going to war? Are you defending human rights, protecting human life, or embarking on genocide? Obviously, the last of these would fail the test of Just Cause by the value structure of the western world.
2) Right Intentions. This is open to a lot of debate, but the basic point here is that the war should be undertaken in the pursuit of justice as opposed to national self-interest. This leads to a host of philosophical debate as the two are often intertwined.
3) Proper Authority. Are you a sovereign nation following the pre-defined rules your charter, constitution, or law defines for the waging of war?
4) Reasonable Chance of Success. This one is sort of a no-brainer. If you don't have a reasonable chance of success, it is not worth the sacrifice of human life.
5) Instrument of Last Resort. Other means to achieve the Just Cause are not effective or have failed.
Jus in bello refers to how a just or moral war should be waged. It has two basic concepts:
1) Discrimination. This can be defined as the concept that hostilities should be directed towards military and political targets, minimizing the risk to non-combatants.
2) Proportionality. Some theorists consider this to be both a part of jus ad bellem and jus in bello. There are two basic concepts here - the ends should be in proportion to the offense committed, and needless destruction should be avoided.
In this framework, western civilization does, indeed, consider war to be a just and moral instrument. While you're certainly entitled to believe that war is always immoral, you'll have to forgive the vast majority of society from disagreeing with, and dismissing you as, some sort of simpleton.
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