War

I am in the part-time military and I may be deployed to active service. Can I reasonably justify the deaths of any people I am required to kill during operations?

Comments

This question cannot be answered in general terms. Some killings that you may be required to perform may be justifiable, others not. Generally, killings in war are thought to be justifiable when two conditions are both fulfilled: Your country must have a just cause for being involved in the war in the first place. And each potentially lethal action within the war must be aimed at a legitimate target while taking great care to spare others who are not a threat. You must reassure yourself on both counts before you start killing people on the orders of others. This can be quite straightforward when you are ordered to defend your country against invading soldiers. But it can be far more difficult, if not impossible, when you are ordered to participate in an attack upon, and occupation of, another country.

Taking the U.S. invasion of Iraq as an example, there is considerable doubt about the first condition. The U.S. sought but failed to obtain UN Security Council authorization. The weapons of mass destruction supposedly held by Saddam Hussein's regime never turned up. There is no evidence for Hussein's alleged collaboration with Al Qaeda. Major human right violations committed by his regime were committed in the 1980's when the U.S. was actively supporting Iraq's war against Iran. Here you need to identify some cause and reassure yourself that it is sufficient to justify the attack on Iraq.

Regarding the second condition, various estimates put the number of Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the U.S. invasion at between 65,000 (Iraq Body Count) and 655,000 (the Lancet). Many were killed by local groups, to be sure, but only because the U.S. -- seeking to keep our troop commitment low -- failed to maintain public order and security. Many more were killed through indiscriminate U.S. bombardment of civilian areas from which hostile fire was supposedly received or to which suspected insurgents had supposedly retreated. Other civilians again were killed by U.S. troops taking revenge for losses suffered from roadside bombs or other attacks. (Last Saturday, 27 May 2007, for example, the Washington Post reported that: "Witnesses to the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in thewestern town of Haditha say the Americans shot men, women and childrenat close range in retaliation for the death of a Marine lance corporalin a roadside bombing.") If you conclude that the war is just, and decide to go to Iraq, you need to avoid being involved in the intentional or negligent killing of non-combatant civilians. If, on the basis of the evidence you have about the conduct of U.S. forces in Iraq, you anticipate that this would be very difficult or impossible to achieve, then you ought not to go in order to avoid being involved in unjustifiable killings.

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