Preview

War is Ethically Wrong The purpose of this essay is to prove that under no circumstances is war ethical. It follows specific logic rules of argument.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
959 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
War is Ethically Wrong The purpose of this essay is to prove that under no circumstances is war ethical. It follows specific logic rules of argument.
My thesis is that war is ethically wrong. My main argument goes as follows: Any action that kills an innocent person without their direct consent is ethically wrong; war kills innocent people without their direct consent. Therefore war is ethically wrong.

The first premise of my main argument states that any action that kills an innocent person without their direct consent is ethically wrong. On average, many people would agree with this statement. To kill an innocent person for whatever reason would hold up as murder in a court of law. Yet, one might object to the part of the premise that states, 'direct consent.' This leaves room to debate the questionable subject of euthanasia. By one giving direct consent to someone else to terminate their life, would, according to the premise be acceptable.

Though euthanasia is not the subject of this paper it is important to understand that direct consent of the individual is essential to establish the unethical grounds of war. If direct consent to die was given by all innocent people in times of war then there would be no moral issue to discuss. Accordingly, imposing one's will, though the intentions may be good, is second-rate to the right of the individual to give direct consent in matters concerning their life.

My second premise states that war kills innocent people without their direct consent. History has been a great teacher in proving to us that innocent people die in times of war. Yet, one could even argue that the soldiers in the war are considered innocent people and do not necessarily give their direct consent to be killed.

This may sound ludicrous since often times a soldier goes into the military on his or her own free will. Yet, when the soldier sign's up he or she never sends a letter or calls the enemy and states that the enemy has their direct consent to kill them. This is absolute nonsense. It is only indirectly that death comes about. It is never by choice or desire. When a soldier enlists he or she

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    During the American Revolution Soldiers weren’t the only ones who were at high risk of death. For example in the small town of Redding, Connecticut there was a variety of different opinions on war. Unlike like most happy stories and fairytales there was no good side, there might have been a good cause but no side was considered innocent. The Patriots were killing someone for a crime they did or looked like they were committing even if they were fighting for their side. The British were exaggerating situations to get a chance to execute a fellow loyalist or Patriot. In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by, James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier,…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    War brings death and destruction, merciless slaughter and butchery, disease and starvation, poverty and ruin in its wake. Although war may not always be the first answer or the most beneficial, it is an inescapable evil because war has brought the world peace and prosperity while banding people together to fight for a cause. It leads to national growth and solves domestic problems between countries; Injustice and tyranny can be quelled as the aftereffect of war. On the contrary, war includes loss of human life, spreads of diseases, and induces a feeling of anxiety and dismay among communities. The brutal sacrifices that innocent people undergo may not be worth the outcome.…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the case of military ethics, a person should have the choice to kill in order to defend their country. People should look to see this is justifiable, “Consider the situation…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    War is a foul and nauseating occurrence throughout history. Nevertheless, it is something that has happened more than once. There are numerous amount of people who have experienced the events of a war. Each person can have a different perspective and experiences. However, those people can be categorized as victims, perpetrators, or bystanders.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry V Ethical Analysis

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It has never been agreed upon that life is an absolute right, but only that death is the absolute outcome. Philosophers call it a prima facie right, this right gets forfeited in actions such as aggravated murder, abortion, physician-assisted suicide, and other heinous crimes. However, the great western powers are on sure footing when it comes to this type of permitted murder, but a just war doesn’t make a total war acceptable. Williams Shakespeare’s play Henry V is loosely based upon England’s own ethical dilemmas in the early 1400’s. This is especially true when conflicting governments go into a war just because one side believes themselves to be in a just war the other may not.…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    During World War II and the War on Terror, there are many moral issues. One of the questions that people ask regarding the wars is: is reasoning for going to war justified? On December…

    • 1727 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A review of chapter 2, 'The Crime of War' in Michael Walzer's book, "Just and Unjust Wars: A moral argument with historical illustrations." Allen Lane 1997.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The decision to go to war has nothing to do with the individuals fighting the war. The warfighters are merely following the orders of the politicians and heads of state who have decided to enter into a war. Walzer claims, “We draw a line between the war itself, for which soldiers are not responsible, and the conduct of the war, for which they are responsible, at least within their own sphere of activity” (39). Soldiers are only responsible for what they directly take part in, so as long as both sides, whether fighting a just or unjust war, follow Jus in Bello principals all soldiers should have the same moral equality. However, Jeff McMahan presents a refutation to this belief in his piece, “Rethinking the ‘Just War’ Part 1”, in which he poses the idea that soldiers are directly responsibility for justice/ injustice of a war. McMahan adheres to a school of thought known as the revisionist approach which believes, “ … that it is the individual…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Murder is wrong because it destroys a human subject (Goodman, 2010).” Goodman is very correct in this statement but does this also include warfare? People know that in the war there are times that you have to kill to protect yourself, your fellow soldiers, and/or your country. Do you classify this as murder? My thoughts on this is murder is when you kill because of hatred or anger, killing in warfare is the cause of having to protect yourself and what you believe in. “Warfare is not always wrong; it may be necessary to protect such subjects (Goodman, 2010).”…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Just War Theory

    • 1946 Words
    • 8 Pages

    What justifies war? Who justifies it? Why as human beings do we feel the need to fight, harm, and kill others to achieve certain goals? These questions have been pertinent to our society since the beginning of time and continue to challenge us to better understand the human psyche, and code of ethics that give Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines credence to kill in the name of the United States of America. These ethics of war lay the foundation for that code of understanding and righteousness for when it is justifiable to pull the trigger and take the life of another, or commit an act of war.…

    • 1946 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Soldiers Thoughts

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Scott-Singley said “I had my orders and they had their” (pg 438). This is too true. When you are in the war atmosphere, people are plotting against you. They are your enemy. As a civilian we all can have enemies, but we don’t go out and kill them. It is not morally just. We would actually get locked up if we killed just because we didn’t like someone. As a military man, a man at war, your enemies are not to stay alive. If they are, they are still a threat. Killing your enemy is the only option.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, as noted before, this reconciliation is difficult due to the soldier’s obligation to everyday violence war requires. In response, Jeff McMahan, a professor of moral philosophy of the University of Oxford, stated this, “soldiers do no wrong even if their cause is unjust” (Ryan, 11). Practically, soldiers are given an ethical pardon because of the moral equality between soldiers. On the basis of moral equality of combatants (MEC), opposing soldiers would also be justified to kill even if they have no genuine cause (Finkelstein, 184). This means that soldiers of the aggressor country are not responsible for their killings, while soldiers of the defending country have no special protection from being killed. Comparatively, the actions and cause of a soldier are independent of one another; thus, the two should not be used interchangeably. It has also been pointed out that this may encourage more unjust wars due to a lack of consequences for the soldiers and lack of influence by the citizens (McMahan, 693). By contrast, if citizens came to believe that participation in an unjust war was wrong, soldiers would be more hesitant in fighting those wars, and governments more reluctant to initiate those wars for fear of the resistance it may bring. Therefore, it is reasonable to allow the soldiers this moral leeway with the consent of the citizens. Nevertheless,…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A large sector of just war theory references several moral and legal implications that must be evaluated prior to engaging in attack. The legalist paradigm, as expressed by theorist and author Michael Walzer in his book Just and Unjust Wars1, evaluates the conditions that constitute just war, and elaborates on several of the key circumstances that are required to impose just war on others. Despite its strengths, this paradigm is often evaluated as being a “strawman”, and provides only a foundation for which several other nuanced views can expand on. One fundamental idea expressed in his claims though, is the idea that “nothing but aggression can justify war”1. Through this, Walzer establishes the only moral precedent for which a counter-attack…

    • 1585 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    These soldiers aren’t the only deaths from war but also foreign civilians who aren’t part of the war, for example civilians. Anup Shah a well experienced author on multiple articles focusing global issues says that, “Over 6,000 United States soldiers killed in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Possibly 100 times that number of civilians in those countries. In Iraq, at an early point, there was an estimated range of 400,000 to 900,000 civilian deaths” (Shah 1). These deaths are unethical due to the fact that they have no reason to be killed. Again published by Jeff McMahan an oxford graduate he says that, “soldiers lacking a just cause should no longer be understood to have any moral right to kill soldiers that possess a just cause. This is because soldiers lacking a just cause also lack a right to harm.” (McMahan, 1). so these civilians have no reason to kill, but they are still being killed by foreign action like america's intervening actions. Jeff McMahan a oxford graduate and cambridge university graduate that has written 6 books over the ethics of war believes that noncombatants who are not involved in war aren’t a real threat, “enemy combatants are in general legitimate targets for just combatants but that enemy noncombatants are not.” (McMahan 26). This attack onto innocent foreign civilians has been used as support against the United States for encouraging people to…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    War is malicious doing that causes many unarmed civilians to to die. In World War I, almost 9,000,000 civilians were killed and for what? Their deaths served no purpose in aiding the war effort on either side. These civilians died from diseases, because almost all of their nation’s medicine and medical personnel were helping in the war effort, from massacres, caused by militaries destroying entire cities filled with people, and from starvation, due to practically all the nation’s food being channeled to…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics