Military Ethics 9/2

Review:
- weapons are constantly changing
- ex. in ww2 if you wanted to bomb a bridge and you drop dumb bombs and
with luck you would hit the bridge.. sometimes you wouldn't hit the bridge either.
Today, send out a stealthy b2 bomber and you tell the guy you have 10 targets
(bridge 1,2,3,4, etc.)


Weapon types by function

Reaching weapons: transportation and delivery
- Transportation: human legs, horses, chariots, ships, trucks, tanks, airplanes,
missiles and rockets, etc.

Locating weapons:
- Human eye, binoculars, gun sights, range finders, sonar, radar, thermal-
imaging devices, light-enhancing devices, etc.
- Locating means not just finding the enemy by identifying his exact position
- B/c of weapons like the themral-imaging devices you can tell the diff
between the trees heat and body heat... allows for fighting all day and night

AWACS (Airborne warning and control system)
- Radar sort of thing that tells you where they are gives warning

Disabling weapons:
- The human hand, rocks, sword, knife, arrow, bullets, bombs, shells, chemical
agents, biological agents, etc.

Defensive weapons:
- Shield, helmet, armor plates, electronic countermeasures, stealth features,
anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns (and missiles), etc.
- ex. stealth airplanes can absorb or deflect waves from radar and continue
undetected (Like the B2 bomber of F3 plane)

Support equipment:
- food, housing, most important is the computer though

Weapon systems:
- Combine diff kinds of weapons

One response: pacifism
- Pacifists argue that all wars are immoral. Many go on to say that all forms of
violence are immoral (so another name they carry is non-violentists)
- War was brutal right from the beginning b/c you killed the person
immediately.. rarely were prisoners taken and not killed

Ghandi- famous non violentist

One of the earliest forms of pacifism was Christianity
- Jesus is reported as saying many things that make him sound like a pacifist
- "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Arguments for pacifism:
- Appeal to religion (e.g. the prophet says it is wrong to kill)
- Deontological appeal. War can't help but treat people merely as means
- Consequentialist appeal. War's consequences are so horrible that we should not
engage in such brutal acitivity

A modern version of pacifism
- It is championed by an American philosopher by the name of Gene Sharp

Another response: militarism
- These people glory in war. They say that peace is just a rest time between
wars. War imporves the moral fiber of individuals and unifies the societs
- ex. moral fiber- srgt. telling you to do sit up and stuff- 6 weeks later you're
in better shape b/c of war and you feel better

Sparta
- Classical greek militarists
- to keep the messenians under control they had to militarize society

George Patton: was he a militarist?
- yes.. basically

Third response for militarism: realism
- Realists say that war is AMORAL. War and morality, they say, have nothing to do
with one another
- one goes to war for reasons of (national) self- interest
- And one fights the same way. In battle you don't think of doing humanitarian work,
for ex. All you think of is doing things to help you win.
- Most realists say... do whatever you can to win as long as it helps you to win...
cheat... whatever AS LONG AS IT HELPS

Athens and the Melians
- Thucydides reports on the Peloponnisian War
- He tells us that the Athenians argues like realists against the people of Melos. They
said we got the power to destroy you Your only choice is to give up (and be slave) or
fight

Argument for realism (3rd)
- Conseqeuntialist argument. Nations survive only when they look out after their
own interests. In baseball a famous manager said "Good guys finish last." The realist
version of this saying is "Good guys finish dead"
pacifism
realism
militarism


Fourth response: Just War Theory
- These theories say that some wars are immoral but that others are not
- Just war: Kuwait, Unjust war: Invading everywhere
- It also says that a division needs to be made between jus ad bellum (justice of the
war) and jus in bello (justice in the war)
- Justice in the war- how to fight war... ex. no killing children

First crack at understanding just war theory
- Jus ad bellum (justice of the war) has six principles
- Just cause
- good intentions
- likelihood of success
- proportionality
- last resort
- proper authorization

- Jus in bello (justice in war)
- Proportionality
- cost of the attack should be the same or less than the gain
- Discrimination
- All ak47s vs no gun
- Discrimination principle says you can shoot at group with ak47s but
not at the people without weapons

Confucius
- Background: aristocratic family, teacher or li; starts "free standing" school