Apr 13, 2018 06:42 PM
https://www.theatlantic.com/internationa...hy/557750/
EXCERPT: . . . I spoke about America’s ethical responsibility with some of the world’s leading moral philosophers. These are people whose job it is to ascertain the right thing to do in any given situation. All of them suggested that, years ago, America might have been able to intervene in a moral way to stop the killing in the Syrian civil war. But asked what America should do now, they all gave the same startling response: They don’t know.
The usual framework philosophers would use to answer this question—the so-called just-war theory—isn’t providing clear answers. The theory’s first principle is that if you’re going to go to war, you need to have a just cause. At this point, the humanitarian crisis in Syria is so severe that most people would probably agree that condition has already been met. And that was true before the weekend’s suspected chemical attack. The ethicists I spoke to said the death toll alone could establish just cause; the use of chemical weapons could add a further element of moral responsibility to stop it, not so much because of the pain they cause, but because they kill indiscriminately, wiping out combatants and civilians alike. Conventional weapons, like barrel bombs, also kill indiscriminately.
But there are other conditions that have to be satisfied for a war to be considered just or moral. One is that an intervention has to achieve more good than harm. And it’s not clear, according to the ethicists I spoke to, that any military action the United States can take in Syria now will fulfill that condition...
MORE (their individual opinions): https://www.theatlantic.com/internationa...hy/557750/
EXCERPT: . . . I spoke about America’s ethical responsibility with some of the world’s leading moral philosophers. These are people whose job it is to ascertain the right thing to do in any given situation. All of them suggested that, years ago, America might have been able to intervene in a moral way to stop the killing in the Syrian civil war. But asked what America should do now, they all gave the same startling response: They don’t know.
The usual framework philosophers would use to answer this question—the so-called just-war theory—isn’t providing clear answers. The theory’s first principle is that if you’re going to go to war, you need to have a just cause. At this point, the humanitarian crisis in Syria is so severe that most people would probably agree that condition has already been met. And that was true before the weekend’s suspected chemical attack. The ethicists I spoke to said the death toll alone could establish just cause; the use of chemical weapons could add a further element of moral responsibility to stop it, not so much because of the pain they cause, but because they kill indiscriminately, wiping out combatants and civilians alike. Conventional weapons, like barrel bombs, also kill indiscriminately.
But there are other conditions that have to be satisfied for a war to be considered just or moral. One is that an intervention has to achieve more good than harm. And it’s not clear, according to the ethicists I spoke to, that any military action the United States can take in Syria now will fulfill that condition...
MORE (their individual opinions): https://www.theatlantic.com/internationa...hy/557750/