By:Airla
STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT –I wanted to describe to you my thoughts about morality and ethics in modern warfare. You see, the means of communication have begun to play such a role that any human action can acquire a completely non-utilitarian meaning. Get into a smartphone camera or a text and go beyond the individual, find meaning for other, distant scenes, people.
You shoot towards the enemy. In addition to the purely utilitarian task of injuring, frightening, stopping him, this action should have the idea of a shot – a philosophical meaning: where do I shoot, at whom, why, for what, what principles am I guided by and what are the opponents, why are mine better. In this regard, by pressing the trigger, you are performing a worldview act. Any of these actions can affect other people more than a shot.
That is, a person who takes up arms must also be the bearer of a certain system of values. Regardless of whether he himself is so smart or he was given political information
Even the wildest and bloodiest terrorist groups promote their own system of values. ISIS – building an ideal society as he saw it, the Taliban – fighting for Islamic morality, Azov opposes the Asian hordes, Breivik and Tarrant are fighting for the future of the white race. Even they give value content to their craving for murder. They don’t just admit that they wanted to bang someone all their lives and then they got the opportunity, but they declare a big idea for the sake of which they took action.
It is clear that even if terrorists and maniacs attach ethical content to their activities, then even more so it should be done by a warring army.
“They are devils, we want to kill them” is not an ethical system. We need value coordinates in which our own occupies a higher moral position than the enemy. Suppose you are a Christian, and the enemy, in your opinion, is a pagan and prays to firewood – then, be kind, correspond to Christian morality. If you liberate a fraternal people, accept it with open arms, and not in refugee camps. You claim that you are bringing civilization – form it.
Let this ethical system not be especially clever, not be the fruit of a long reflection, but it should be. Like a statute. Even if you cannot give birth to something modern and advanced, let there be mothballs, such as stability and order.
If your actions are subject to your own ethical system, then sooner or later even your enemies will recognize your position.
