The Morality of War

Perhaps one of the most important observances of this is that the US accomplished exactly what they had hoped to. The atomic bombs did indeed end the war. But at what price?

The only “immoral” idea of using the bombs in my mind is that they weren’t dropped on soldiers, they were dropped on citizens. Soldiers may witness hell, but they know what they are getting into when they volunteer. The Japanese citizens did nothing but wake up in the morning and die while going about their lives. I don’t believe we had the right to attack the people.

Another thing we did not have the right to do is introduce that kind of technology to mankind. Once scientists find a “weapon of mass destruction” is possible, they are going to find a way to create and utilize it. This kind of thing would spread through the world, as it very well has, and a weapon of this power is too much. During the war, using the bombs were the best way to go, because they saved so many lives. But after that kind of weapon is used, it will be duplicated. Humanity may not be able to survive itself with the power we’ve put into the hands of many leaders. Right now, the US has enough nuclear power to destroy the world five times over. It’s the same for many other countries. Saving a million lives in the twentieth century may end the world in the twenty first. There was no way to know this would happen back then. There was also no reason to assume it wouldn’t.

Morality in a time of war cannot be questioned because war itself is immoral. I don’t believe there is any question of morality in World War II from using the atomic bombs. It was obviously the best thing to do, the only hope for some soldiers, and the promise of a quick end to this ongoing war. But that one decision may have changed warfare forever. If history repeats itself, as it often does, and we have a third world war, I don’t think humanity will be able to escape itself. We’ve already been threatened with the monster we’ve created by mentally unstable leaders in North Korea and Russia. We invade countries we believe may have weapons of mass destruction; we also can’t stop them. We may very well have brought about the end of the war with our ultimate weapon, with our unmerciful intelligence, and with our “perfect solution” to end our biggest war yet.