Moral Judgment in Time of War

From opposite sides of the spectrum of American politics, Eisenhower and Rustin suggest the same general theory of moral djugment in wartime. They both suggest that only one judgment is possible. War itself (Rustin is a pacifist) , or some particular war, can be called just or unjust. But apparently nothing whatsoever can be said about morality in war, about justice or injustice in the midst of the strife, because the “logic of war” imposes brutality equally on all participants. Once war begins, there are no moral limits, only practical ones, only the “limitations of force itself” and of the “law of violence.” This is a very common American view and one sufficiently serious to warrant careful refutation. I want to argue that it is profoundly wrong and that what the old lawyers called jus in bello (justice in war) is at least as important as jus ad bellum (the justice of war) . War is indeed ugly, but there are degrees of ugliness and humane men mu...