Shue Revisited

A part of me was hoping that class discussion would open my eyes to the perfect solution to the search for morality in war. However, while many people made very insightful points, it soon became obvious that I would never find a solution to the problem that I could accept as morally sound. Although I have been defending complete pacifism, I do believe that there probably are some situations—though they are extremely few and far between—that a nation is, if not morally obligated to go to war, at least justified in doing so. However, I don’t believe that it is possible in a real-life situation for a war to ever be just.

Shue states that in order for a war to be just, both the a) intent and b) conduct of the war have to be just. However, in my opinion, any time that the intent of a war is just, the conduct of the war will not be. My reasoning is as follows: In order for a war to be morally justifiable, the good it brings must outweigh the death and destruction caused by the war. Everyone, including those who decide to enter a ‘just’ war, understands the extent of the violence that can result; the very purpose of wars is to bring death and destruction to the adversary. Therefore, in order for a war to be determined just, the cause or principle that one is defending must be invaluable. In short, if a government is to risk the lives of its own people for a cause, it is willing to sacrifice anything (this assumes, of course, that the intent of the war is just, as described by Shue). Once the war is initiated, the nation is not only fighting with the incentive of protecting this morally justified cause (be this liberty, equality, etc), but also the incentive of protecting its own military personnel. For this reason, no military will live up to Shue’s expectations for just conduct of a war. The stakes are too high to, for example, assume an unknown citizen of the opposing nation is a civilian until proven otherwise, as Shue suggests. Although this may be the only morally permissible option, a nation will always err on the side of protecting its own and its own cause.

I have, sadly, come to the conclusion that, although a just war is possible in theory, it could never happen in reality. However, I am forced to admit that, because in rare circumstances war may do more good than harm, I do not feel we can declare war one hundred percent morally repugnant. So I guess I am left with the unsatisfying conclusion that the best we can do is to avoid all wars except for those that are absolutely morally necessary and, in these cases, conduct the war in a fashion as similar as possible to Shue’s idealized moral rules.