During one particularly long study session in which I was studying Ethics of Philosophy, my attention shifted to one topic in particular – the topic of war and whether it is an act which can be justified or not. After reading the notes I have on the subject, I still had a lot of questions to which I wanted an answer to. Why is war such an intrinsic part of the human psyche? Why are we such a violent species when in reality we are capable of doing so much good?
All such questions are entitled to answers. For the purpose of this article, I shall explain and elaborate on mine. Perhaps one of the best introductions on the topic of war I have ever heard is this: “Since the dawn of humankind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God, to justice, to simple, psychotic rage.” Video game aficionados would recognise this as part of the introductory sequence to Fallout 3, and in exactly 34 words it precisely describes how war and the human frame of mind are intertwined together. In humanity’s violent history, wars have been waged over a myriad of reasons, reasons which were not always ethical, as the above-mentioned quotation implies. Indeed, despite the fact that war, in its very nature, is evil, there were several conflicts which would be considered as "just’. So, what could possibly make conflict A just and conflict B not so?
The answer is simpler than one might think; when a nation has exhausted all other possibilities of reconciliation with an aggressor, when imperative values and ideas are being undermined and violence is the only way to achieve peace through the targeting of military personnel are being targeted is a war just. Upon reading these statements, one realizes that it is rarely so when it comes to bloodshed. Take, for example, the nastiest, most destructive conflict of the 20th Century, the Second World War. Nazi Germany was waging a war on the rest of Europe which was far from being just; it was a military campaign fuelled by hatred and bigotry. The very same war also set the stage for the most horrific act of war in the history of mankind: the bombing of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war had practically ended, and the nuclear bombs claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent women, men and children. That is not a just war. That is not fighting for the conservation of your nation; that is not fighting to defend your country’s ideas, that is simply organised murder.
It is somewhat heartening to see that in modern times, conflict across the globe has somewhat diminished. Humanity still has a very long way to go in order to achieve world peace, however; as we speak, blood is being shed in places such as Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. If only warring nations spent their military budget on financing education instead… now that would be a world we could all live in.