Abstract
The costs argument is a supplemental moral argument against war: the terrible costs of war in recent centuries and in the foreseeable future, it is argued, establishes the moral wrongness and evil of modern wars. These costs include the great suffering of civilians in combat operations and the post-war effects on both civilians and soldiers, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), This argument is not for unqualified pacifism (because it argues against only modern wars, not all wars), but if successful it shows the correctness of a pacifist approach to modern warfare.
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Notes
- 1.
World War II Casualties. Available, 2017, via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_casualties
- 2.
The Holocaust. Available, 2017, via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust
- 3.
Stephen J. Rockel, “Collateral Damage: A Comparative History,” in Inventing Collateral Damage: Civilian Casualties, War and Empire, ed. Stephen J. Rockel and Rick Halpern (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2009), p. 6.
- 4.
Sven Lindqvist, “The War Against Women and Children,” trans. Linda Rugg, in Inventing Collateral Damage, p. 294.
- 5.
The Ottawa Treaty banning the use of land mines was adopted in 1997 and signed by 122 countries, but not by the US, Russia, and China.
- 6.
Marc W. Herold, “‘Unworthy’ Afghan Bodies: ‘Smarter’ U. S. Weapons Kill More Innocents,” in Inventing Collateral Damage, pp. 321–22. Some of these immediate and long-range effects, such as injuries requiring prostheses, were in part caused by the use of cluster bombs, which disperse into lethal “bomblets” that kill indiscriminately. A 2008 convention, or treaty, banning the use of cluster bombs has been signed by 100 countries. The US, Russia, and China are not signatories.
- 7.
Herold, “‘Unworthy’ Afghan Bodies: ‘Smarter’ U. S. Weapons Kill More Innocents,” p. 322.
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Kellenberger, J. (2018). The Costs of War. In: Religion, Pacifism, and Nonviolence. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95010-5_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95010-5_9
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