New technologies, new moral questions (Drone warfare, Part 1)

By guest author Dr. Mike Corgan

Since the first attempts to develop moral or legal standards for warfare and the consequent killing and destroying of war, technological developments have invariably come along.

Drone missile launched from aircraft carrier
Drone missile launched from aircraft carrier. Image in public domain.

These technologies confound painstakingly agreed-upon attempts to limit and contain the lethality of an essentially lethal activity.

Anomalies abound. Why is tear gas a chemical weapon in the laws of war but napalm is not? Who, exactly, is a lawful target of warfare?

These questions have arisen most recently and most strikingly in regard to missile-carrying drone aircraft.

A debate of sorts is now underway about the morality of drone attacks, especially as used by the Obama administration.  A New York Times July 15 op-ed piece cites the judgment of Bradley J. Strawser of the Naval Postgraduate School that there is a moral case for these kinds of attacks.

Essentially it is that the amount of collateral damage (to civilians) is far less than it has been for any other kind of attack. This principle conforms to both legal and moral norms of proportionality.

In a very long and detailed article in the August Esquire, “The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama,” Tom Junod argues that these attacks are definitely not moral, certainly not legal and have opened a Pandora’s box that invites havoc.

Junod accuses Obama and his aides of inventing moral distinctions rather than observing them in order to justify the attacks. These attacks:

  • Take place in many countries with which we are not at war
  • Kill American citizens without anything remotely resembling due process, and
  • Do indeed kill the innocent.

Case in point: American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was targeted and killed while in Yemen on the sole authority of the President. In a later follow-on attack, his 16 year-old son was also among those killed.

This from a president Junod claims to have admired. What happens, he concludes, if a “cruel or bloodthirsty” president gets this capability? One might further ask, what happens when others bent on destruction acquire this capability, as they surely will?

Michael T. Corgan, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of International Relations, Boston University

A new birth of freedom

“[W]e here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain–that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom–and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, PA, November 19, 1863)

Abraham Lincoln, 1858
Abraham Lincoln, 1858. Image in public domain.

As we celebrate Lincoln’s birthday on Sunday, let’s reflect on  freedoms that still demand pursuit. There are many:

  • Freedom from racism, sexism, prejudice, and discrimination
  • Freedom from tyranny and injustice
  • Freedom to have control and choice in regard to one’s body, one’s mind, one’s labor
  • Freedom to live by the ethic of reciprocity without being punished for doing so.

Right now, important efforts to obtain freedom and democracy are underway in many parts of the world, and often without the support of our own democracy in the U.S.

Our own democracy is in need of support as well, as it is often undermined by our own government and citizens in the name of national security.

The United States does not have a good record regarding support for democratic movements elsewhere in the world. As a Muslim friend of mine said, the election of Barack Obama was in many ways revolutionary—an effort to take back the power of the people, by the people, and for the people from the ruling military/industrial/media complex.

The pro-democracy and Occupy movements throughout the world offer an opportunity for the President and the American people to put our money, support, and understanding where its professed values lie—to advance freedom, democracy, and peace.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology