War

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War
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The Spirit of War
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The moral significance of war
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Jus ad bellum

• Justice (in going) to war
• What would justify going to war?

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Jus in bello

• Justice in war
• What are the rules of conduct in war?

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Arguments that War is sometimes justifiable
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Rectificatory justice

• How can you right a wrong?

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Rectificatory justice

• How can you right a wrong? Aristotle
• This must be done by a proper authority a judge
  with authority to adjudicate
• It is for a just cause there must have been an
  injustice that harmed someone
• It is intended for a just purpose to set things
  right again, to make things as if the injustice
  had never occurred

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Going to war

• Just war theory (Aquinas) Classic answer, based
  on rectificatory justice
• A war is just if
• It is waged by a proper authority
• It is for a just cause the enemy deserves to be
  attacked for some fault
• It is intended for a just purpose to advance
  good and avoid evil

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Proper Authority

• A war must be waged by a proper authority
• Wars must be waged by legitimate governments or
  international organizations granted such
  authority by legitimate governments (e.g., NATO,
  the UN)
• Decisions to go to war must be made by proper
  authorities within those governments or
  organizations

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Just Cause

• Wars must be fought for just causes, on account
  of faults
• Faults that might justify war
• Aggression (countries may defend themselves,
  their citizens, or one another, against attacks)
• Danger (countries may attack a country
  preemptively if it endangers them?)
• Human rights (countries may defend citizens from
  violations of their rights?)

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Just Purpose

• Wars must be intended for just purposes to
  advance good and avoid evil
• Wars must be waged, not for self-interest, but
  because its the right thing to do
• Good purposes
• Restore peace
• Defend citizens
• Save lives
• Advance freedom and democracy
• Protect human rights

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Just wars World War II

• Allies waged war by proper authority official
  declarations of war by legitimate governments

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Just wars World War II

• Just cause response to attacks (Germany attacked
  Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the
  Netherlands, France, Russia, and Britain Japan
  attacked China, various East Asian countries, and
  the United States)

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Just wars World War II

• Just purpose intended to stop aggression and
  restore peace

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Unjust wars

• Lack of just authority Those not waged by the
  proper authority
• Rebellions, revolutions not authorized by any
  legitimate body
• Wars waged by illegitimate governments
• Private wars, vigilante actions

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No just authority Che Guevara
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No just authority Sept. 11
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Unjust wars

• Lack of just cause Those not in response to some
  fault
• Wars of aggression (Italy attacking Ethiopia
  Germany attacking Poland et al. Japan attacking
  China the US North Korea attacking South
  Korea Iraq attacking Kuwait)
• Wars based on misunderstanding
• Wars to maintain unjust control (USSR invading
  Hungary, Czechoslovakia)

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Aggression Blitzkrieg, 1940
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Unjust control Hungary, 1956
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Unjust wars

• Lack of just purpose Those waged for a reason
  other than seeking good and avoiding evil, e.g.,
  revenge, hatred, envy, aggrandizement, cruelty,
  the fever of revolt, the lust for power

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Unjust Purpose Iran-Iraq War, 1980
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Unjust Purpose Napoleons Invasion of Russia,
1812
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Unjust Purpose Hitlers Invasion of Russia, 1941
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Unjust Purpose Iraqs Invasion of Kuwait, 1990
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Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)

• On the Law of War and Peace The grounds of war
  are as numerous as those of judicial actions.
  For where the power of law ceases, there war
  begins.

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Justifiable Causes of War

• Defense Injury, or the prevention of injury,
  forms the only justifiable cause of war.
• Indemnity right to recovery, redress, damages,
  compensation for injury
• Punishment punish aggressor, deter future
  aggressors

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How does injury justify war?

• Principle of self-preservation you may kill an
  aggressor if
• you are threatened with immediate danger
• the danger cant otherwise be avoided
• Aggressor forces people to risk their lives for
  the sake of their rights
• Aggression justifies forceful resistance

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The Domestic Analogy

• There exists a society of independent states
• This society has a law establishing rights of its
  members
• Any use of force, or immanent threat of force, by
  one state against another is a criminal act
• Aggression justifies wars of self-defense and of
  law enforcement
• Nothing but aggression can justify war
• Aggressors can be repulsed and punished

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Arguments for Pacifism
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Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

• Ahimsa Non-violence
• Non-violence is infinitely superior to
  violence.
• Gandhi argues for pacifism violence is morally
  unacceptable

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The Ethics of Killing

• Killing is intrinsically wrong
• The only exception when it is in the interest of
  the one being killed
• Even then, it would be hard to have confidence
  that killing is right

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Deontological Arguments

• It is wrong to cause pain or kill
• Out of anger
• For a selfish purpose
• Or with the intention of harming it
• Non-violence ennobles those who lose their lives

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Consequentialist Arguments

• Non-violent responses to aggression defuse anger
• It is not weakness, but pitting oneself against
  the will of the tyrant
• It can achieve political objectives
• In the long run, it results in the least loss of
  life

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When Killing is Justified

• One must destroy life to live but one should do
  it as little as possible
• One can kill to stop suffering
• One can kill a crazed person running amok

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Justifying War

• Some wars are justified WWII, Korea
• But the future is unpredictable
• Unforeseen effects always outweigh foreseen
  effects
• So, its impossible to know, at the time, that a
  decision to use violence is justified

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Objections to Pacifism

• If killing is wrong, it must be because life has
  value
• But then why cant someone kill to protect or
  defend life?
• Orwell Gandhi gained independence for India, but
  from the British would it have worked against a
  ruthless, totalitarian foe?
• How can a pacifist protect the persecuted?

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Preventive War

• Can one ever attack first?
• Talmud If a man is coming to kill you, wake up
  early and kill him first.

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Against Preventive War

• Preventive war presupposes a standard for
  measuring danger
• Fought to maintain balance of power
• Utilitarian argument
• The balance of power maintains order that makes
  liberty possible
• Fighting early reduces cost of defense

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Against Preventive War

• Second-level utilitarian argument
• Accepting that argument leads to countless wars
  whenever shifts in power relations occur
• Threats might justify war, but fear doesnt how
  can we tell them apart?
• Its best to rely on legalist paradigm

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For Preventive War

• Sometimes, it really is less costly to fight
  early
• Example Nazi occupation of Rhineland, 1936 WWII
  could have been prevented
• Its hard top gauge likelihood or magnitude of
  future attacks
• But cost the attack will impose, multiplied by
  probability, may be very high

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For Preventive War

• Suppose theres a 50 chance of an attack
• Cost of that attack 100
• Expected cost 50
• If a preventive war would cost less than 50, its
  justified

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For Preventive War Terror

• This argument is especially strong when applied
  to terrorism
• Terrorists can do vast damage
• Retaliation and deterrence are difficult
• Hard to track whos responsible
• Terrorists may be widely dispersed
• Suicide bombers cant be punished after the fact

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For Preventive War

• Domestic analogy we punish people for planning
  to commit crimes
• Evidence has to be convincing, but standard is
  weaker for violent crimes
• Individuals who cant be deterred can be punished
  in advance

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Jus in bello

• What are the proper rules of warfare?
• Walzer That one may not shoot someone in the act
  of surrendering shows that there are such rules
• Not everything is permitted
• War is distinguishable from murder and massacre
  only when restrictions are established on the
  reach of battle.

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Jus in bello

• When and how can soldiers kill? Walzer This
  appears largely conventional.
• Limitations of weapons (e.g., chemical and
  biological weapons treaties) limitations on
  questioning, torture
• But are these merely conventional?

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Treatment of prisoners

• 235,000 American and British prisoners were held
  by the Germans and Italians 4 died
• 132,000 were held by the Japanese 27 died
• American aircraft machine-gunned Japanese
  survivors swimming for shore Americans often
  shot surrendering Japanese
• Japanese doctors performed horrendous experiments
  on prisoners
• Johnson moral confusion

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Rules of War

• Whom can they kill?
• War is a combat among combatants
• Killing someone not currently engaged in the
  business of war is a crime

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Rules of War

• Grotius we may defend ourselves against allies
  of our enemy
• We may attack even when the attack endangers
  innocent lives

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Von Clausewitz

• War is an act of violence intended to compel our
  opponent to fulfill our will
• Object is to disarm the enemy
• War is a political act, a mere continuation of
  policy by other means

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Alls fair in war

• in such dangerous things as War, the errors
  which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are
  the worst.
• Nice guys finish last he who uses force
  unsparingly, without reference to the bloodshed
  involved, must attain a superiority is his
  adversary uses less vigour in its application.

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Virtue in war is not a means

• to introduce into the philosophy of War itself
  a principle of moderation would be an absurdity.
• Prussian General von Moltke The greatest
  kindness in war is to bring it to a speedy
  conclusion.

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Hard Cases Enemy Cities

• Roosevelt, 1939
• Asked belligerents to refrain from the inhuman
  barbarism of bombing civilians
• But that attitude didnt survive for very long

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Hard Cases German Cities

• Churchill, July 8, 1940
• When I look round to see how we can win the war
  I see that there is only one sure path. . . .
  There is only one thing that will bring
  Hitler back and bring him down, and that is an
  absolutely devastating, exterminating attack by
  very heavy bombers from this country upon the
  Nazi homeland.

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Hard Cases German cities

• Historian Paul Johnson
• The policy . . . marked a critical stage in the
  moral declension of humanity in our times.
• Took about 25 of Britains war production
  killed 600,000 Germans
• Hamburg, night of July 27-28, 1943 800-1000 C
  over the city destroyed half the housing, 37.65
  of the population killed

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Hard Cases Dresden

• February 13-14, 1945 over 650K incendiaries
  dropped on the city
• Firestorm engulfed 8 square miles, killed 135,000
  men, women, and children
• There were not enough survivors to bury the dead
• Goebbels It is the work of lunatics.
• Pilots It was the only time I felt sorry for
  the Germans.

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Dresden before
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Dresden after
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The Bombing of Tokyo

• March- July 1945 100K tons of incendiaries
  dropped on 66 cities, wiping out 170,000 square
  miles of densely populated streets, killing
  260,000
• March 9-10, 1945 killed 83,000 in Tokyo, injured
  102,000

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The Bombing of Tokyo
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Hard Cases Hiroshima

• Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita I am
  become as death, the destroyer of worlds.
• August 6, 1945, 815am out of 245,000, 100,000
  died immediately, 100,000 died subsequently
• August 9 Nagasaki, 75,000 killed

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Utilitarian justification

• June 6, 1945 Japanese Supreme Council approved
  plan to prosecute the war to the bitter end
• 10,000 suicide planes 2 million troops on the
  beaches 4 million tropps, 28 million militia in
  reserve
• Allies projected 1 million American casualties,
  10-20 million Japanese

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Hiroshima before
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Hiroshima after
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Hiroshima after
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Hiroshima after