The Ethics of War

While war is sometimes a necessary measure that needs to be taken in order to stop human rights violations, for self-preservation, etc, there has never been and most likely never will be an entirely “just” war. The publically accepted reasons for entering a war or for the measures taken during war can sometimes seem ethically correct. However, there are always underlying motives that go beyond altruism and which prevent one from considering a war as just.

 For the most part, most people can agree that war is usually not a good thing and it should be considered a last resort. I do not deny that there are times when war is unavoidable. However, the massive death toll and destruction that war induces can never completely be considered morally just. The “Just War Theory” is used to make war seem okay in the eyes of the public and, in my opinion, it is outdated in our continually modernizing era. War no longer consists of regular armies that are deployed by states; it now is usually involves non-state actors such as al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups. This makes it difficult to utilize the Just War Theory because the rise of these irrational actors makes it hard for states to declare war on other states seeing as these extreme individuals or groups act independently of a state. Furthermore, we must now factor in nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons will most likely guarantee the death of innocent civilians and the destruction of entire civilizations, which results in the inability to consider wars involving nuclear weapons just.

The example of a “just” war that is most often cited is World War II. There is no denying that the U.S. intervention was essential and that the most accepted reason for entering, to stop the atrocities Hitler was committing, was crucial and ultimately just. However, the innocent lives that were lost while the allies tried to stop Hitler cannot be consider a just causality because the loss of human lives denies us the ability to ever consider that action a just action. The reason we enter the war can be justified but we cannot deem it a just war. The best examples of the unnecessary loss of lives, are the nuclear bombs that America dropped on Japan. While this did lead to the end of the war, 120,000 innocent people were killed immediately and tens of thousands of more lives were lost through radiation exposure. The fact that the massacre of innocent lives went on for so long before the US decided to intervene shows that there were additional underlying reason for our entrance into the war, other than to stop the Holocaust.

While wars, and certain actions during war are sometimes required, that does not give us the right to consider a war just. The dictionary definition for the word “just” is; based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair. How can taking people’s lives ever be considered morally correct or fair even if it is sometimes “necessary”?