Everyday ethics: What makes a just war?

In the fog of war and heated emotions, it’s sometimes difficult to be clear about who is right and wrong ethically speaking. Each side to war may claim the high moral ground.

Some would argue that no war is ever justified in terms of the loss of lives. War saps human resources from the needy and leaves destruction in its wake. Others would expand this understanding to suggest that the real issue is dealing with the conditions that lead to war, such as poverty or the lust for power. Still others would argue that some wars are necessary to stop indiscriminate mass murder of innocent civilians.

But the history of humanity shows that wars seem inevitable. And they often happen as the result of unintended consequences or the maddening rise to power of a single individual or party not governed by reason but a fanatical desire for more land or control over neighbors.

Of course, perhaps the causes of war rest not in the stars, but ourselves, some part of our collective psyche that seeks warlike behaviors often under the guise of perceived victimhood. Thus, while war is a social act of many, its reality is rooted in the individual. The argument then continues that until individuals change, wars remain.

Between those who would argue that no war is morally just and those who argue that war is simply part of the human experience, there are some criteria for whether or not a war is just.

It’s hard enough to evaluate moral issues when there are at least two major wars going on in the world, one in Israel and another in Ukraine.

There is one moral tradition, however, that provides a framework for seeing the moral response to war, at least when it comes to Ukraine. It’s called the just war theory.

First described by St. Augustine, among this theory’s guiding principles are the following: When there’s a just cause for war, it’s a last resort after all other efforts have failed, it has the right intention (such as saving people), has a reasonable chance of success, and is proportional to the means used. Traditionally cited by leaders of the Catholic faith, it has been used by others to assess whether or not a specific war is morally justified.

In the light of this theory, Russia’s war on Ukraine is not just and has violated international law.

Applying the just war theory, Hamas is also acting unjustly in violation of international laws in its treatment of civilians.

I believe it is morally sound to hold two points of view at the same time — Israel has the right to defend itself and the Palestinians the right to a homeland.

I believe there is another way to assess the ethical dimension of war — by the behaviors of those involved in it.

One of my favorite books by Phillip Halle is called “Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed.” It’s the story of the villagers on a small town in southern France, Le Chambon, during the harsh years of World War II when the Nazi domination of Europe was ongoing.

In that village, quietly and without fanfare, in full view of the occupying government and a nearby division of the Nazi SS, villagers and their clergy organized to save thousands of Jewish children and adults from certain death.

When asked why they risked their lives for people they did not know, the villagers responded simply that it was part of their community to treat others as they wished to be treated. Here they expressed an ethical code built into the everyday lives of the people.

I cite this village as an example of ethical behavior of an entire group. They risked their lives to save others. Compare this with the behavior of Vladimir Putin’s Russia now taking the lives of others simply because its leaders want to expand their empire or the Hamas terrorists killing people in Israel.

There is an ethical gulf between those who take lives needlessly and those who protect lives. That’s moral clarity.

British philosopher Bertrand Russell shared his wisdom in a rare 1959 radio interview, when asked what he would hope to leave future generations as to how best to live as individuals and nations.

“The moral thing I should wish to say to them is very simple: I should say, love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way — and if we are to live together and not die together — we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance, which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.”

John C. Morgan is a teacher and writer who taught ethics for many years.