MORALITY OF WAR
May 04, 2007
by: jovial_cynic
by: jovial_cynic
It's no secret that dehumanization and war go hand in hand. It's difficult for most folks to view an enemy as a human being and at the same time be capable of killing them for the sake of a government agenda. One must mentally turn the enemy into something less than human, and become less than human themselves.
On Beyond Interactability, a site dedicated to constructive ways of dealing with conflict (war is typically seen as destructive), dehumanization is described as:
... a psychological process whereby opponents view each other as less than human and thus not deserving of moral consideration. Jews in the eyes of Nazis and Tutsis in the eyes of Hutus (in the Rwandan genocide) are but two examples.
It's this lack of moral consideration that is responsible for what's going on in Iraq right now.
From NPR:
In a survey of U.S. troops in combat in Iraq, less than half of Marines and a little more than half of Army soldiers said they would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian.
More than 40 percent support the idea of torture in some cases, and 10 percent reported personally abusing Iraqi civilians [includes hitting or kicking a civilian when it was not necessary], the Pentagon said Friday in what it called its first ethics study of troops at the war front. Units exposed to the most combat were chosen for the study, officials said.
While it's certainly true that there are forces in Iraq who dehumanize and even demonize US forces, that doesn't seem like a position the US forces are supposed to take, given their "morally superior" position. It's difficult to claim moral superiority when half your members don't report when innocent civilians are killed or wounded by your own.
This pretty well supports my "there are no good guys in war" position.
On Beyond Interactability, a site dedicated to constructive ways of dealing with conflict (war is typically seen as destructive), dehumanization is described as:
... a psychological process whereby opponents view each other as less than human and thus not deserving of moral consideration. Jews in the eyes of Nazis and Tutsis in the eyes of Hutus (in the Rwandan genocide) are but two examples.
It's this lack of moral consideration that is responsible for what's going on in Iraq right now.
From NPR:
In a survey of U.S. troops in combat in Iraq, less than half of Marines and a little more than half of Army soldiers said they would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian.
More than 40 percent support the idea of torture in some cases, and 10 percent reported personally abusing Iraqi civilians [includes hitting or kicking a civilian when it was not necessary], the Pentagon said Friday in what it called its first ethics study of troops at the war front. Units exposed to the most combat were chosen for the study, officials said.
While it's certainly true that there are forces in Iraq who dehumanize and even demonize US forces, that doesn't seem like a position the US forces are supposed to take, given their "morally superior" position. It's difficult to claim moral superiority when half your members don't report when innocent civilians are killed or wounded by your own.
This pretty well supports my "there are no good guys in war" position.
