War and Moral Choice
by Tom Kertes

War is a moral choice. War is moral because war is always a life and death matter. Lives are ended when wars are fought. Killing undeniably involves great moral questions. And war is a choice because people who fight in wars make a choice, to fight or not to fight. War is a moral choice made by politicians, generals and soldiers. Without these people to direct and wage war, wars simply do not happen.

Acts of warfare are carried out not by the presidents or parliaments in power, but by those who follow the commands of those in power - by soldiers. There would be no occupation of Iraq without the participation of the soldiers who invaded and who now occupy the country. While war is constructed by those in power, it is executed by soldiers. Because the actions of soldiers make wars either possible or not, each soldier who is asked to fight in a war must decide if the war is moral or not. If a solider deems a war to be either immoral or illegal, then that soldier must decide to fight and violate their sense of right and wrong, or they must refuse to fight.

Standing Up for One's Convictions Requires Enormous Courage
The soldiers who fight in wars are ordinary people and have little power over how a war is carried out. Soldiers create power for those in charge, but have little power over the conduct of the international conflicts and domestic politics that lead to war. But this lack of power over geopolitics and the affairs of state does not negate that each soldier makes a moral choice to either be an active participant in war or not. Soldiers cannot direct armies, but do direct themselves. Each soldier has the power to deem a war as immoral or illegal. And each solider as the power to act in accordance to their own conscience.

It takes enormous courage to stand up for your moral beliefs, especially when you are soldier and face the threat of punishment for refusal to fight in an immoral or illegal war. Acting in accordance with one's conscience is rarely easy, and for the soldier faced with the moral dilemma of fighting in an immoral or illegal war it is an especially difficult path you face. Each solider must therefore decide what is more important - to act according to your own values, refusing to do the wrong thing or to do what you know is wrong and immoral.

I accept that many people believe that there can be a "moral war." For those who believe that a war is just and is therefore worth fighting, you can choose to fight and, according to what you believe, act in a moral way. What others believe about the morality of your conduct should have no bearing on your moral standing before yourself. But if you believe a war to be immoral, then your participation in such a war is, by your own admission, immoral and wrong. Now you must stand before yourself and decide what is the right thing to do - fight or refuse. You have the power to decide and to act in accordance to your own conscience.

War Requires Both the Moral Question and the Moral Answer
The question of war, unlike some moral questions, requires an answer. If you participate in a war that you deem immoral, you are doing something deeply wrong by your own admission. The American occupation of Iraq has cost as many as 600,000 Iraqi lives. Children and adults have died in air bombings and been burned to death in seas of chemicals that melt the skin of dying people. Cities, neighborhoods, communities, families, schools and hospitals have been targeted and destroyed. Human rights have been violated, detainees have been tortured. Lies have been spread. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. If you choose to be directly involved in something of this scale, your moral certainty should be solid. To be part of this and to help make this happen, you should believe that the war is both moral and legal. Otherwise, you are a moral coward, a hypocrite and a villain.

Soldiers make a moral choice and act on that choice. It is it up to the solider, not to others, to judge if this choice is moral. Soldiers - not generals, presidents, parliaments or pundits - are responsible for their own actions. Soldiers are responsible for determining if what they are doing is moral and just. Soldiers - alone - must decide if participation in a war is the right thing to do. Of course, others have a right and a duty to determine and share their views on the morality of a war, but as far as each soldier is concerned it is up to the soldier to determine what choice they will make. Others can disagree or attempt to influence, but in the end it is up to each person to decide what actions you will either take or not take.

Collective Action Does Not Free You from Individual Responsibility
The moral ramifications of participation in war are often deemed by pundits and the mainstream media as being too troubling to be brought up. Soldiers are, in the minds of many Americans, free from personal responsibility because they are part of a collective. By this logic soldiers are doing as ordered and are therefore exempt from making moral judgments about the conduct of war. Moreover, not only does the collective nature of military conduct exempt individual soldiers from moral culpability, but according to this same logic it also shields the entire military collective from moral judgment To deem the military's conduct, as a whole, as immoral is to deem every soldier in that military as immoral. And this, in the minds of many Americans is an unfair burden to add to the already heavy burden placed on the soldier.

I reject this logic. I insist that each soldier retains personal moral responsibility for their individual conduct in war, and that each has a right to act on their convictions and moral judgments. Each soldier has both a right and the duty to decide if a war is moral, or not. Each solider has both a right and the duty to decide if a war is legal, or not. And if a solider deems a war immoral or illegal, each solider has both a right and the duty to withhold support and to resist from doing what they believe to be immoral or illegal.

Illegal War Violates American Law, Tradition and Values
America has been at the forefront at imposing the rule of international law on the conduct of war. In international treaties advanced and adopted by the American government, crimes against the peace and crimes against humanity exclude certain kinds of war and certain acts of warfare. These laws make criminal the conduct of illegal war and warfare. Wars of aggression are always deemed illegal, as are acts in war that target civilians, that practice genocide, and that include the use of chemical and biological weapons.

I believe that the American occupation of Iraq is immoral and illegal. I would like others to come to this same conclusion so that the war and occupation will end immediately. I understand that those who are already in the military and who are already fighting this war face a complex and difficult choice. Most don’t even realize that there is choice. We should all love and support those who are exploited by the government to carry out an immoral and illegal occupation. But support does not also mean that we should also be advancing the collective denial that soldiers have moral right and duty to determine if participation in the this war is moral, or not.

Because I believe the occupation of Iraq to be both immoral and illegal, it is my hope that many American soldiers will realize both the depth of moral wrongs being conducted by this war and that they will refuse to fight in the war. I think that all Americans of conscience owe it to both the Iraqi people and to American soldiers to remind soldiers of their right to moral refusal from participation in immoral and illegal war.

The Moral Choice in War Is Complicated and Personal
The moral choice in war is complicated and personal, involving many factors that intersect with many forms of oppression and exploitation. Many soldiers do not know that they have a choice in war. Many see no way out. And many face terrible conditions at home, in terms of poverty and hopelessness. The moral choice of war must be asserted in this context. Since it is the individual soldier who determines as to whether a war is moral or not, those opposed to illegal and immoral war should work with soldiers in respectful an loving ways that allow soldiers to come to a decision through reflection.

It takes courage for anyone to act according to what they believe is right and moral. And it takes the highest levels of courage for the soldier in war to stand up for their values in instances of war. Deciding that war is immoral and wrong requires the courage to face up to the implications of past actions and of possible mistakes. Deciding to stand up and resist an immoral or illegal war requires even more courage, since the punishments for soldiers who act in accordance to their moral values can be harsh.

Outsiders should not judge or blame soldiers, who have been ordered by government to engage in war. The blame for war rests on those in power. But this reality does not negate the fact that each solider has a moral choice, and that if they choose to be part of a war they are making a profound moral choice with implications that go far beyond the confines of their own life. War is complicated. The moral choice to fight in war is complicated as well. But what is not complicated are the implications of war. For this solider this means one thing: Be certain of your moral position on a war since you are the force that makes the war happen.

The Blame for War Lands on Politicians, Pundits, Generals and the Public First
Those opposed to war should assert the moral choices in war, since the immorality of a specific war matters in the debate that should surround any given war. And just as the moral choice of war should be asserted, so too should our absolute love for the victims of war, which includes those on both sides of any conflict, exploited and tossed aside in the interests of those in power. Those in power wage immoral and illegal wars without regard to human dignity or respect. Those in power who wage immoral and illegal wars do so without regard for the sanctity of human life. And that is why the blame and the judgment of others should be on those in power. Those who have both the power to start and stop wars, and who use the lives of others to get whatever it is that they want by organizing others in violence, are to blame for war and must be stopped. Soldiers have the most power to stop the war hungry, and should assert their right and duty to decide for themselves if a war is both legal and moral before deciding to fight, or to not.