Marines accused of civilian executions

"This one is ugly" NBC reports an official saying. It appears a group of Marines lost the plot when one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb. They entered a nearby town and executed 15 civilians, ten of whom were women and children, in a cold-blooded and indiscriminate revenge spree. A number of the victims were in the middle of prayer when they were shot.

The story is currently under investigation but was leaked by a conservative ex-military Democrat, Rep John Murtha, and verified by a number of anonymous military sources. Murtha blames poor planning of the war in general and an extremely stressful and difficult situation for the way the Marines reacted.

This is important to think about for those Christians who would advocate a Just War theory of the theology of war. Christian theologies of war can be broadly categorized into three kinds:

• Crusade: where war can be used so long as the proponents are Christian and do it in God's name.


• Just War: where war is traditionally only a last resort and may only be used in defense, or to rectify previous wrongs done such as things taken or crimes committed. More recent definitions are even more stringent demanding:
  
  
  
  • that wrongs done by an enemy significantly outweigh one's own wrongs to that enemy
  
  
  • that a legitimate public authority prosecute the war
  
  
  • that force be used solely for the purpose of justice and not for other motives such as material gain or maintaining an economy
  
  
  • that the destruction required to achieve success be significantly outweighed by the good that can be done
  
  
  • that war be engaged only after all other alternatives have been attempted and have failed
  
  


• Pacifism: where all violence is morally unacceptable, regardless of another's wrongs. Some theories of pacifism go further and demand active non-violent intervention in war, aiming to make peace by personal sacrifice and appeal to the other's humanity.

Now Iraq, like most wars since (arguably) World War II, does not even remotely qualify as a Just War. But even so, this scandal must raise questions for Just War theorists. Most wars have proven to produce fairly dark behaviour from the supposedly 'good' side. The fire-bombing of Dresden during WWII is a famous example of vengeful slaughter with dubious tactical motives. The bombing of Nagasaki is arguably the same. During Vietnam there was the My Lai massacre and more recently exposed was the killing spree carried out by an elite platoon called Tiger Force. In a scenario similar but worse to what is described above, Tiger Force appear to have lost all restraint and applied a scorched earth approach to a region of Vietnam for a period of seven months, killing hundreds.

So the question for Just War theorists is 'Can a nation sanction small groups of young people to go into a war zone and kill numerous people without having those people lose their humanity and commit attrocities?' and if not, can the moral risk of these attrocities occuring be permitted for some greater good?

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