ethics of war?

Question

hi everyone,

for my yr 12 study of religion assignemnt i am doing a speech on the ethics of war, collateral damge etc

i need to find out as much as i can as the speech is 10 minutes long

can anyone direct me to some good websites that can help me with this or does anyone hav any ideas?
i also need some views of the church outside of christianinty so any other religions would be great also...

i am using an episode from M*A*S*H to back up my speech. i am using the last episode in which you hear the cost of the war e.g lives etc its right at the end of the last episodei know this was only a tv show but i believe that it will make a good statement in my speech?

all answers greatly appreciated

thanks heaps

katie :)

Answer 1

You have two choices, the first is "Is war an ethical choice" the second is "What is right or wrong to do in a war". The ethics of war would seem to indicate the second choice while it seems you're going with the first. Mash was a very thought provoking show, but it was extremey biased and did nothing to explore whether the descion to honor America's (Nato's) commitments was a ethical choice or not - it might show how America could have conducted it better or more ethically.

I would seriously take a look at what "Ethics" means as a philosophical study and how it applies to your speech.

Answer 2

The first people to have a ritualized type of warfare were the Greeks and it is from them that we can trace ethics in warfare. Homer's Iliad sets the basis of individual combat that would be followed for thousands of years, the knights in the Middle Ages did not want to fight against the peasants because they were not worthy challenges. The Church also affected ethics in battle as during the Middle Ages they set limits of war and weapons and who was a combatant. This evolution goes all the way up to the Geneva Conventions and the Just War Theory.

Answer 3

You might find some interesting material for post-War America. There was some debate in the press regarding the use of the A-bombs to decimate Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And there are even some interesting quotes from military people such as Eisenhower expressing their dissappointment in the use of those weapons.

Answer 4

I had to write this huge term paper on the impact of the civil war on the economics of the South. In my readings I found out about alot of the attrocities commited against the South and the devestation it had on its economy. It is still feeling the effects today. I might also look into WWII and into the Gestapo and the holocaust.

Answer 5

As a pacifist, I do not find warfare to be ethical at all. However, as a realist I know at times it is unavoidable. I am for all peaceful avenues to be exhausted before picking up guns and sending out tanks. If you look at history, most war is for economic reasons which makes it unethical. Like the Spanish-American War - the US did that purely for economic reasons and to flex its proverbial muscles.

Answer 6

Check out the Peloponesian war- it's the first true war ever recorded (by a chap called Thucydides)- you could also discuss ritualised warfare,and the reasons this method of resolving conflict is no longer observed.

Answer 7

Many people say that waging war is always unethical. Those people are wrong.

War requires hostility from two sides. Genocide requires it from only one.

If the choice is between war and peace, choose peace. If it is between war and genocide, choose war.

Many things in life are worse than war. If war can prevent them, then war is worth waging.

Answer 8

I do not know if this will help but when we speak of war this is an issue seldom mentioned. I want to WARN you please be careful when you open the attached links. When I started to answer you I did not realize how much emotion it would stir in my heart, I will be on my knees saying prayers for the children tonight.

Answer 9

M*A*S*H is great and has some very profound stuff in it. That's great that you're using it. Confucious discusses war in The Analects for an Eastern perspective. You can google confucious war.

Answer 10

War is good if your god commands it, but evil if any other gods do.

We will always win because our god, the right one, is on our side. He wants us to go to war so we can win.

Since eternity is waiting for us, it doesn't matter if we die; since it is waiting for everybody else, it doesn't matter who we kill.

Isn't religion a wonderful tool for control?