War and Morality

Paper Summary:

This paper attempts to define combatancy and who is considered a combatant. It also looks at some of the questions concerning morality that arise from humans participating in combat and its consequent killing of humans.

From the Paper:

"Innocent implies without guilt. Can a combatant ever be without guilt? In 1945 it was figured that only 15% of US riflemen used their weapon. As the US was heavily engaged in combat around the world for three years, one must assume that many a soldier avoided killing whenever possible. These passive soldiers were most likely conscripts who were compelled to serve their country. They generally would have been raised on religious principles that include the sanctity of life. If they had wanted to kill there was certainly no lack of opportunity at this time. So obviously there were no small number of armed soldiers that had no intent to kill. Without compulsion they may not even be armed. Perhaps these combatants were innocent. Perhaps they were not combatants at all but just teenage boys in a uniform and carrying a rifle."

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• Term Paper # 98072 : "War and Human Nature"
• Book Review # 21917 : "James Turner Johnson and George Weigel's "Just War and Gulf War"

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