Ethics of war: just or unjust?
Added on 2020-03-04
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Running head: ETHICS OF WAREthics of war: just or unjust?Student NameUniversity nameAuthor Name
ETHICS OF WARThe western world has always been an active participant in the theory of just war. Thewestern scholars and politicians have always engaged in explaining, condoning and defendingthe inevitability of war. American war theorist Michael Walzer discussed the concept of just warand ethics of war in connection with certain war cases (Walzer, 1977). He analyzed ‘just adbellum’, ‘just in bello’ and ‘just post bellum’ principles in order to discuss that topic. By the firstprinciple of the theory the politicians are accountable for the starting of wars. He suggested thatsix criteria to be fulfilled by the state or nation to make any war justified. The right reasons likeself defense or protection make the wars justified. According to Walzer, resistance of aggressionis one such just cause where war is needed in order to protect the basic rights from violation.Iraq in Kuwait or Nazis in Poland invaded the territory by using armed forces (Trom, 2014). Orthe Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack was aggression against the basic rights of United States of Americaand its citizens. The attack of America against Taliban terrorists of Afghanistan was justified.The intention should be right, a competent author must wage the war, the success probability,proportionality and it must be fought as the last resort. Walzer applies the theory of supremeemergency to justify war. He insisted that such situations where a political community must haveto intentionally kill innocent people should be considered as supreme emergency (Neu, 2014).America’s war against Taliban is also justified from this perspective. Al-Qaeda’s terrorist attackcan be compared with Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack. However America’s bombing on Japan’sHiroshima and Nagasaki cannot be explained in such simple manner. Walzer concludes that USA’s decision to attack Japan by dropping atomic bomb failed tomeet the supreme emergency criteria. USA claimed that they wanted quick end of the prolongedwar. Before the Japan bombing, the USA had already lost hundreds of thousands civilians andmilitaries. So using the atomic bomb was their deliberate attempt to limit the number of death,
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