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Q: So, in the end is this war more or less justified than previous wars? A: I guess I think the war has not been as clearly justified as World War II, where the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor, and we fought back.... [With this war,] the relative moral causal links are less clear.
The interesting [parallels are with] a case like Bosnia, where you can argue that as a defender of human rights and human dignity we had to get involved.... It's not a claim that fits easily into the just-war framework, which is the predominant framework that has been used over the last year-and-a-half. That doesn't mean it's an illegitimate framework, but it raises some questions: If we're going to get involved whenever you have a murderous regime, does that mean we would have been justified in invading China at the height of the Cultural Revolution? And, if we were justified and didn't do so, why not?
You now have people asking why we aren't invading countries in Africa that have murderous regimes, or why not Iran? I think Americans are going to get very anxious. You begin to wonder as an American: Where does this doctrine take us?
Q: O.K., in ethical terms it seems like kind of a mess. A: There hasn't been enough clarity. We don't have the language yet to distinguish among these cases. Frankly, I think that lack of clarity creates a kind of dread and anxiety in people. We're all wondering if there's another war on the horizon.... It stirs up anxiety when [the government] plays the card that all these countries out there are evil and imminent threats. Aristotle noted that that's a very dangerous card to play, because once it's played, it's difficult to retrieve.
Q: The U.S. has some terribly lethal weapons of its own. How about the ethics of using these weapons in war? A: I have a couple of thoughts about that. On the one hand, it seems to me that we have tried to limit civilian casualties [through the use of] precision weapons. We also didn't drop atomic bombs, for example.
On the other hand, I think we need to ask ourselves whether we're involved in an honest reckoning [of the damage done during the war]. I've heard it said that this was a relatively casualty-free war. But [some] people in the Administration also have said that they simply aren't going to try to tally the dead on the [Iraqi] side. I think [that] can be dangerous because it can lead us to think that fewer people were hurt than, in fact, were hurt. I understand that it's difficult getting that count, but I still think it's a count we should care about.
Q: What's your take on the TV coverage of the war? A: Maybe it has been more intensive and relentless, but it [also] has been less memorable. What strikes me is that many of the photographers did not show death, refused to take certain kinds of footage because they didn't want to show death. Ask yourself: Have you seen anything as memorable as the photos from Vietnam?
My answer is "no," and my theory is that film footage has less impact [than still photos]. The film moves on, and when there's 24-hour coverage, in a certain way you become numb. Nothing sticks with you.
Q: What about the fact that Americans supported this war so strongly. Does that mean that something fundamental has changed in their attitude? A: No. I think there have been different levels of support. Some people have been 100% behind the war, and others have more tentatively supported it. I'm struck by how people I know will say they favor the war -- and they may even use some sophisticated philosophical argument for why it's a just war -- but then they'll say, "Thank God my son or my nephew doesn't have to go."
That's interesting. They're saying it's a just war, and maybe even an obligatory war, but [they don't feel] obliged to [help] fight the war. I don't know how you assess that kind of support. It's support for the war as long as you yourself don't have to do any of the fighting.
I've been struck by how inarticulate people are about why they support or don't support the war. You get answers like, "Well, I'm behind the President." Or "We have to stop the Iraqis who were involved in 9/11," which is something of a misstatement. If the support is so almost incoherent and morally mute, then what do we infer from that? Are people speaking from reasoned positions or from an almost hysterical sense of vulnerability?
Q: And you feel that opponents of the war are just as inarticulate? A: I'm disappointed by opponents' rhetoric, too. They have an obligation to think about what the alternatives were -- or are. Certainly you can debate whether or not trying to contain Saddam worked. But, at some point you have to ask what happens if containment isn't effective. Suppose, for example, that he did get a nuclear weapon. Are we then really envisioning some elaborate system of deterrence? [Opponents] haven't pushed themselves very hard on what the alternative might look like.
Q: Clearly the U.S. has a disproportionate share of the military power in the world right now. Are there dangers to that? A: The demands of justice must still apply. There's a danger that just because we can do something, we will do something. I think Americans are prone to what I call the technological imperative. That has been a continual problem in bio-ethics, for example. We have to [make sure] we don't [slide] from "can" to "should."
Peterson is a contributing editor at BusinessWeek Online. Follow his weekly Moveable Feast column, only on BusinessWeek Online Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
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Copyright 2003, Bloomberg L.P.
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