Proportionality In Fog Of War

In the film “Fog of War”, one of Robert S. McNamara’s lessons of war was “Proportionality should be a guideline of war.” This means that the ends do not always justify the means; the means used to achieve the end should be reasonable. However, even in the movie, this is not the case. Unlike the other lessons, lesson # 4 has the word “should” in it, meaning that McNamara has not seen this lesson used yet. Proportionality is still not seen in the world today. It was also not used in the past, such as in the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove. Thus, this lesson has rarely been applied to movies or real life.

In the segment of the movie documenting this lesson, Mr. McNamara talks about how it was not used in the bombings of Japan during the Second World War. In order to cripple Japan in terms of morale and military, the US instituted a vigorous, fierce bombing campaign. US planes would bomb Japan day and night, killing millions of civilians in the process. All of this was done in order to win a war. I believe that this is not proportional. As McNamara questions: should you kill a hundred thousand civilians a night to win a war?
In Dr.
Strangelove, it is clear that neither the Americans nor the Soviets have any regard for proportionality to win a war. The Soviets created a doomsday machine that would wipe out all life from the earth if the Americans were to start a nuclear war. They have taken severe measures to ensure that if they are attacked, they will at least tie—by wiping out the Americans as well as all life on
earth.

In our modern world today, proportionality is not seen in major ways. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost the US government 3 trillion dollars. The purpose of this war was to stop terrorism, which resulted in many deaths: 6973 deaths have occurred from terrorism from the years 1995 to 2003. However, this number is dwarfed when compared to deaths from hunger—one person dies every second or 100 000 people per day. If the purpose of the war was to reduce the amount of lives lost per year, then the 3 trillion dollars could have eradicated hunger, along with poverty and illiteracy. This is not proportional in terms of money; you should not spend 3 trillion dollars to fight a regional, foreign war. This money could immensely benefit the greater good if used elsewhere. Even in smaller, local matters, one can still find examples of unjust means to attain a goal. Recently, David Chen, a grocer in Chinatown, taught a thief a lesson with no regard for proportionality. The thief had only stolen a few money tree plants from the store. To teach him to never steal from his store again, Mr. Chen chased down the thief, brought him inside a van, tied him up and, with some co-workers, beat him for an hour. This is another example of extreme measures to reach a goal.

Proportionality should be a guideline of war, and for normal everyday life. So far, however, it has not been. It is not seen in Dr. Strangelove, or in today’s modern world. It is not even seen in the movie it is mentioned in.