Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Just War and Agincourt

Peter Levine has an interesting piece on Just War here. Even putting my jealousy at his erudition aside, I think I only half agree: soldiers are ultimately responsible for their own actions, but that convention is partly a (highly justifiable) response to the Holocaust. But we do know that individuals find it very difficult to override the imperatives of the organisations and groups to which they belong - organisations and groups that are not democracies in any significant sense. Will is not the sole arbiter of actions and I do wonder how much responsibility can be attributed. Anyway, Levine's post is well worth the read.

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