On War and Governments pt2: About the reasons and methods of killing

[John Bunyan]

When is killing someone justified -especially in the context of war? I belive most of us believe that bringing someone's life to an end as a result of protecting ourselves and others from aggression (no matter who's attacking us) is ok. What are the other cases in which killing!=murder? In war, can we just kill all our enemies and aggressors without any guilt? Even people whom we know to be just? (for example, if our country declares war on a country whose president is a faithful christian and whose church attendance rate is 75%, can we justly kill him if our leaders tell us to do that?)

Are all means of warfare ok? What about mustard gas, biological weapons, EMP's, nuclear weapons and landmines?

 

[Loopie]

John,

This is a very deep question, and probably would take volumes to address all of the issues that you brought up. For this reason I will only tell you what I know and believe concerning my own experiences, since it would take a lot of writing to cover all the theoretical scenarios that someone could find themselves in.

What I will say is that I have personally seen people die in warfare and I have personally contributed to the death of people in warfare. I am sure that there are others on the PB who have had to take life (and probably much closer than when I did it from 20,000 feet). In my own situation I know for certain that I did the right thing. Without going into too much detail, there were American troops in Afghanistan who were being attacked by Taliban fighters (using mortars). When talking to the JTAC (soldier on the ground who has control of the air assets), I could hear gunfire in the background. His voice was stressed and rapid to the point that it was tough to understand him. From our aircraft sensors we could see that his position was receiving fire, and we eventually could see the enemy position where the fire was coming from. I mean, we could actually see the Taliban fighters loading and firing mortar rounds (as well as using gun fire) against the Americans. We were given clearance to drop a 2000 lbs bomb on the enemy position, and we did exactly that. When the smoke cleared the Americans were no longer receiving fire, and we could see the bodies of the Taliban fighters on the ground.

Believe me when I say that I did not find pleasure in taking life. I DID find pleasure and relief in preserving the lives of American troops, knowing that I provided them another chance to eventually come home and be with their families again. I wish that the situation had not reached the point where taking life was the only option. Most of the pilots in my squadron do not want to drop weapons if they can help it, because they know that if they are dropping bombs it is because friendly forces are being attacked. None of us wish for our fellow brothers in arms to be shot at. We wish that there would never be a need to call in air support. Of course, there were a few pilots in my squadron that were bloodthirsty (I am not at all exaggerating). They LOVED the prospect of dropping bombs and killing the enemy. Every time they flew they actually HOPED that they would go 'winchester' (use up ALL of their bombs). They wanted to take life, and they seemingly did not want peace.

I honestly believe that those bloodthirsty men were wrong in their attitude. Their attitude was completely sinful. As for myself, I do not regret what I did, and I never lost sleep over it. It was an event that I wish could have been avoided, but it couldn't. Had we not taken the lives of the Taliban fighters the chance that the American troops would have escaped unscathed was slim.

Of course, this does not at all address the big picture of the entire war (and whether the war itself was just or not). But that is not my intention (and I do not believe it is my place). From the tactical level my knowledge of the big picture is very limited. My job was to prevent the deaths of American soldiers, and that is what I did. I hope that perhaps this helps answer your questions in some way. The last thing I will say about this is that when you are talking on the radio to someone who is taking gunfire and who NEEDS your help, you honestly do not think about whether his actions are just or whether the war in general is just. You HELP him, because that is your job, and that is what he needs. Had I hesitated to the point that he died, I would have definitely lost sleep over it to say the least.