Just War, Character, and Moral Injury
War wounds the soul. It is not only the violence that warfighters suffer that harms, butalso the violence that they do. These soul wounds have come to be known as moral injuries:psychic traumas that occur from having done or condoned that which goes against deeply heldmoral principles.
The problem is that many warfighters at least tacitly follow the commonplace belief thatkilling another human being is always wrong--it's just that sometimes, as in war, it is necessary.This paradoxical commitment makes the very business of warfighting morally injurious.
It does not have to be this way.
The just war tradition is grounded in the basic assertion that killing comes in differentkinds, including the kind that is morally permitted--even, sometimes, obligatory.
This talk discusses the tradition of just war, focusing on that particular kind of martialcharacter that the tradition shapes. The just warrior, molded by virtue and duty, is able tonavigate of several tensions, including that killing in war should neither be too morally difficultto justify and do nor too easy, and that one ought to be able to walk the morally bruising field ofbattle without becoming irreparably morally injured.
About this Lecture
Lectures of Opportunity offers U.S. Naval War College (NWC) students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to learn more about national and international socio-political subjects that may be of relevance to the NWC community.
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