On Duties: The Morality Of War

War cannot be morally justified, even if it seem necessary or the battle looks to be in your favor. In “On Duties”, he says we have certain duties to those who have wronged us but, by going into a physical altercation with an opponent is the way of the brute. Humans have been on the earth for centuries and have become to civilized to resort to fighting. All throughout history we see many battles being won and lost, for more power or for more money in the winners’ pocket. The costs are far greater than just towns being burned to the ground or societies needing to start over. Soldiers who go to war see more than us who are safely tucked away at home. They lose the very thing that keep us intact, our humanity. To get ahead in war we take any means necessary, it is surprising how quickly someone will throw someone under the proverbial bus to save their own
skin. These soldiers can come witness to this at any time, and some cannot even say they would not have done the same thing if in the same position. In “On War” the author tells us that war is irrational and if there were no traces of the art of war then we probably would not go to war today. From this essay, war can almost be seen as a monkey-see, monkey-do situation we have seen it therefore we do it. Our ancestors fought and for the most part ended up with what they had wanted, and this makes us think, “If they did this and got what they wanted why then should we not do it?” But, in no way does there “success” make it okay to send men to what might as well be seen as the death of them. Soldiers do not come back as the same person they were before they left to go to war. In the “Letter to President Saddam Hussein” all the woman wanted was for her son to be sent back home to her. She never demanded she only asked for her son, and through the letter you can tell how hopeful that she is that this letter might work that maybe her son will come home. He did, but what we don’t know is how much he went through, what he saw, what he did, and how it had affected him in the future. Soldiers come from war with PTSD and although some can overcome it, it is not the case for everyone. Some veterans cannot even truly celebrate July 4th because the sound of the fireworks brings them back to the times where they were fighting for their lives, and ours in war. Many of the relationships soldiers had before the war crumble when they come back because it is too hard for them or too hard for the other party. War is no longer about winning or losing against the opponent, it is about whether you are going to win or lose yourself while in battle. We have a duty to our country, no doubt people wouldn’t go to war if they did not feel like it was their job to protect the country and the people within it.
In “Message to Invasion Troops” the general is writing to the soldiers to get them ready for the journey they are about to embark on. He never sugar-coats the fact that the enemy is also prepared for the war and that they will fight savagely. You can only imagine the feel of the room after that letter was read aloud, and how many people were second guessing what they were about to do. Even in “To His Army before His Defeat in Battle” Catiline knew that words can only go so far as to help the soldiers who were about to fight and maybe be killed in the fight ahead. Catiline was killed in this battle, and after his death we don’t know how that effected the soldiers who were under his command. Many could have thought that the war was above their head, this could be seen as cowardice considering they were trying to save their own skin but, if we never had had war in the first place we probably would not have it now and those men would never be put in that
position. Although, because of the duty we hold to our country it can be seen as morally and even politically correct to fight for what we have. We are a very free country and all of the rights that we as human being should have are protected. There is no ruler, government, or any particular person who can take that away from us, and how did we get these rights? By fighting for them, not asking for them politely. We went to war, we caused civil unrest, and we went against what would be seen as good values to be given these rights and because of the fights we fought we are where we are now. If we had done nothing, and let anyone come in and take over, our country would be very different than what it is now and we would all have very different lives. We would not be hearing about the lives of those in other countries and feel sympathy, we would be empathizing because we are living the same lives. From the morals and values that we preach to others, war cannot be the gray area in which we allow. Many things are black and white and values are one of those things, we call people who live in the gray hypocritical. They live in the gray, bending their values to what will help them get ahead but, if others bend their ways they see it as wrong and cannot justify why others would behave the way they do. War is the gray area, we want to win by any means that we deem fit but we do not want the other side to play just as dirty.