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RELUCTANT SOLDIERS: THE MORAL DILEMMA OF AN UNJUST WAR

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2010

Jeffrey Montrose
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Extract

If called upon would you fight in a war you thought unjust? This article attempts to explain why the majority of military officers and soldiers when faced with this question do fight despite moral misgivings they may have. I will explain why on one hand officers are morally obligated to refuse unjust orders in jus in bello cases, but on the other hand it can be argued that they are also obligated to follow orders they believe to be unjust concerning jus ad bellum. The war in Iraq has and continues to presents military officers and their soldiers with a particularly difficult moral dilemma. As citizens of a democratic government it is important that we understand why our military officers act in ways that may seem counter to what we believe is right.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 9 , Issue 26 , Autumn 2010 , pp. 119 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2010

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References

Further reading

Christopher, Paul. The Ethics of War and Peace: an Introduction to Legal and Moral Issues. Englewoods Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1994.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1957.Google Scholar
Vitoria, Francisco de. Vitoria: Political Writings (ed.) Pagden, Antohony, Lawrence, Jeremy., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. New York, Basic Books, 2000.Google Scholar