Ethics Paper Ethical Challenges of the War in Afghanistan After ten years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, military leaders still face significant ethical challenges. Because of the challenges associated with waging an unconventional war, military practices and preparations have not evolved to provide sufficient ethical training for personnel in Afghanistan and Iraqi. This essay explores ethical questions that remain unresolved even after a war that has been prosecuted for more than a decade. Unresolved Ethical Issues Many ethical issues related to warfare, conventional and otherwise, have never been resolved. For example, there is a widely held belief that all people have a basic, prima facie right not to be killed. Even so, and this belief is by no means universally held, that right to not be killed may be forfeited when someone willfully threatens the lives of innocent people. Or, put another way, Soldiers and police are empowered to kill those who threaten the lives of innocent people. It logically follows then that when such killing can be justified, nations and societies may proactively train and equip these professional warriors who are prepared to defend them with force. These assumptions create the basis for the just war theory, (Perry, 2004), a doctrine of military ethics that have been used to analyze the war in Afghanistan. However just a war may be judged, there are moral risks that are an essential part of training officers and Soldiers “to be effective killers” (Perry, 2004) that create a moral dilemma. It is a given that discipline in obeying orders is required to develop Soldiers to be effective in pursuit of military objectives; but what if Soldiers are ordered to do something immoral, such as sh... ... middle of paper ... ...se of military robots, pose additional ethical challenges. Given the nature of the wars being fought and the technology involved, the ethical questions can only become even more complex over time. Works Cited Lucas, G.R. (2008). ‘This is not your father’s war’ Confronting the moral challenges of ‘unconventional war.’ Journal of National Security Law & Policy (3)33, 331-342. Retrieved November 11, 2011 from: http://www.mcgeorge.edu/Documents/publications/jnslp/_06_LUCAS%20Master%2012%2008-25-09.pdf Perry, D.L. (2004). Ethical issues in recent U.S. military engagements. Retrieved November 11, 2011 from: http://home.earthlink.net/~davidlperry/recent.htm Singer, P.W. (2009). Military robots and the laws of war. The New Atlantis, 23, Winter, 27-47. Retrieved November 11, 2011 from: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/military-robots-and-the-laws-of-war
In the pursuit of safety, acceptance, and the public good, many atrocities have been committed in places such as Abu Ghraib and My Lai, where simple, generally harmless people became the wiling torturers and murderers of innocent people. Many claim to have just been following orders, which illustrates a disturbing trend in both the modern military and modern societies as a whole; when forced into an obedient mindset, many normal and everyday people can become tools of destruction and sorrow, uncaringly inflicting pain and death upon the innocent.
When political leaders frame an unjust war as a morally just war, though, these same soldiers might have second thoughts about their decision to become part of a military machine that is prosecuting an unjust war because their leaders lacked the authority to absolve them from their personal accountability. In this regard, McMahan makes the interesting point that, “What unjust combatants are commanded to do as agents of the state – fight, in an unjust war – is not something that their state, or its leaders, have a claim right to do, or to delegate to others”
Laws exist to protect life and property; however, they are only as effective as the forces that uphold them. War is a void that exists beyond the grasps of any law enforcing agency and It exemplifies humankind's most desperate situation. It is an ethical wilderness exempt from civilized practices. In all respects, war is a primitive extension of man. Caputo describes the ethical wilderness of Vietnam as a place "lacking restraints, sanctioned to kill, confronted by a hostile country and a relentless enemy, we sank into a brutish state." Without boundaries, there is only a biological moral c...
Jus ad bellum is defined as “justice of war” and is recognized as the ethics leading up to war (Orend 31). Orend contends that an...
McDonald. “Just War Theory.” Humanities. Boston University. College of General Studies, Boston. 24 February 2014. Lecture.
The just war theory is described by Thomas Massaro in his book Living Justice as the “principle that warfare might be justified under certain conditions” (108). The complexities involved with international relations makes determining a just war very difficult. Even though historically pacifism hasn’t gained much traction within Catholic circles, it currently is gaining popularity with many mainstream Catholics. With so many differing views on military action, one might ask, “What determines a just war? How can we balance the need for peace with self-defense?” An examination of criteria for a just war and critiques written on this topic might shed light on these two questions.
In response to the unjust warfare committed in Vietnam, many activists rose to the challenge to oppose what they believed was wrong. Their activism has slowly changed the way the United States conducts foreign policy. Many forms of weaponry such as herbicides and napalm have been removed from use due to the outcry of their inhumane methods. The sacrifices that these activists made should serve as an example for modern and future American citizens to oppose unjust conflicts and war crimes regardless of the nation they are committed by.
... that of a ‘competing obligations dilemma.’ Faced with a wounded insurgent, who was ’98 per cent dead,’ the decision to shoot him at point blank range and ‘put him out of his misery’ caused confliction among the ethical obligations of Capt. Semrau. The obligations in conflict were integrity, loyalty and responsibility. Each of the obligations that are used to guide Canadian Forces personnel could easily have been applied to the ‘soldier’s pact.’ In Capt. Semrau’s mind he had rationalized that he was morally justified in shooting the insurgent as he ended the misery of the Taliban guerrilla and hoped someone would do the same for him if the roles were reversed. Regardless of how he interpreted his ethical obligations, his use of them contravened the overriding authority of Principle I of the ethical principles which is entitled ‘Respect the dignity of all persons.’
In order for a military to execute its function, every platform of the chain of command must expect and demand obedience to commands (Montrose, 2013), because if this does not happen many lives can be at stake. A simply failure to comply with the orders given can not only jeopardize the lives of the soldiers, it can compromise the safety of all military personnel involved, even in the matter of national security. Utilitarianism has a core theory that some actions may be considered right or wrong relying on the effects of the outcomes. This theory is mostly what could be applied this situation of the detainees in the military prisons. During this time, national security was weak, the country was being attacked and threatened, and thousands of innocent civilians lost their lives. The military could was only looking out for the interest of the country and many interrogation techniques were used to get information that could lead the capture of Al-Qaeda leaders. Soldiers are sent to warzones without the ability to deny their own obligation to war, just because they believe it to be morally wrong. They are sent and receive orders under the assumption the government has all the information needed to make the best decision for the country. According to the periodical, Unjust War and a Soldier’s Moral Dilemma, individual soldiers who have
Moreover, “It uses the case of Iraq to assess whether conservative interpretations of positive international law can be overridden by moral right to uphold elements of natural law that are knowable to all” (p.132). Bellamy ultimately poses a moral question of whether there is a moral “humanitarian exceptions to this rule grounded in the “just war” theory. Bellamy sets out his argument in two aspects to determine whether war has been used for a humanitarian case. He discusses the “holy war” tradition and the classical just war thinking based on natural law and comes to the conclusion that the holy war is problematic. I also agree that the holy war tradition is problematic as no proper set of rules have been set out. It is solely based on mere
War has always been an essential ingredient in the development of the human race. As a result of the battles fought in ancient times, up until modern warfare, millions of innocent lives have ended as a result of war crimes committed. In the article, “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience,” Herbert C. Kelman and V.Lee Hamilton shows examples of moral decisions taken by people involved with war-related murders. This article details one of the worse atrocities committed during the Vietnam War in 1968 by the U.S. military: the My Lai Massacre. Through this incident, the question that really calls for psychological analysis is why so many people are willing to formulate , participate in, and condone policies that call for the mass killings of defenseless civilians such as the atrocities committed during the My Lai massacre. What influences these soldiers by applying different psychological theories that have been developed on human behavior.
Noorman, Merel, and Deborah G. Johnson. "Negotiating autonomy and responsibility in military robots." Ethics and Information Technology. (February): 2014. Print.
...onsidered to be unethical in any ways and violates the military honor (Johnson and Axinn, 2013).
The topic of war has sparked up a lot of debate over the years. War arises when two or more views heavily oppose each other, and as a result, engage in violence. After the bloodshed, war is ended by either agreement or surrender. However, some situations may cause war to recur, as another motive for war may arise, such as revenge. Since 3600 BC, there have been more than 14,500 major wars recorded with more than 4 billion casualties (The facts on War and Peace, 1999). Many argue that war is needed simply because it is effective, while others may oppose stating many immoral decisions have resulted from war. For example, deploying child soldiers is not a new fact, as there are currently 300,000 active child soldiers around the world (The facts on War and Peace, 1999). The effectiveness of war is questionable, however that is not the focal point of this essay. Instead, this essay will explore war in a moral sense. By presenting arguments from both opposing views, this essay will ultimately explain why war is not
These types of actions are contested on whether or not they are following the ethical code of conduct as outlined by the American Anthropological Association (AAA). The ethnographic method of research, involves a cultural anthropologist integrating themselves within their target population, with the aim of collecting data about the local customs, economics and politics (Online Ethics 2013). These groups of anthropologists relay the data that they have collected to military superiors, who will then use the obtained information for counterinsurgency strategy in the Middle East (Online Ethics 2013). Many spectators are opposed to the idea of anthropologists conducting fieldwork with such poor ethical structure. The American Anthropological Association reported on the matter stating, “ethnographic investigation is determined by military missions, not subject to external review, where data collection occurs in the context of war, integrated into the goals of counterinsurgency, and in a potentially coercive environment […] it can no longer be considered a legitimate professional exercise of anthropology” (Kolowich 2009). Anthropologists performing this kind of fieldwork risk their lives in order to acquire this information, which neglects their right to protection in their occupation (Online Ethics 2013). Evidently, the HTS not following these guidelines set in place by the AAA presents an issue for all anthropologists associated with this