The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
G.K. Chesterton
Recently there was a kerfuffle because President Trump forgave several members of the Armed Forces who had been convicted of violating military standards of behavior in a war zone. They had also violated several standards of international behavior enshrined in the Geneva Conventions. Worse, they had violated a set of Christian standards, developed in the West, that had to do with the proper conduct of war.
Now, let me carefully state that in the Eastern view there is no such thing as a Just War. I have written on this before and you may search this website to find the previous articles. The Eastern attitude is that no war can ever be declared just, but rather wars are fought as the lesser evil. You can verify this statement by looking up the subject of war on the OCA website, among others.
The West developed the position that a just war is possible. St. Augustine of Hippo developed the earliest statement of that position. If you read about the history of the Geneva Conventions, and even if you look up current writings about it, there is an acknowledged large debt to the writings of St. Augustine on this subject. This position required a certain set of behaviors in order for the war that was being carried out to be acknowledged as a just war. Among them was that there should be no unnecessary bellicose action against civilians.
This position by the West acknowledges that there is the possibility of unintended harm against civilians. In modern times we have sanitized this by developing the terms “friendly fire” and “collateral damage.” This is a way to minimize the emotional impact of the fact that innocent civilians have been killed. Please note that neither St. Augustine nor the Geneva Conventions allow civilians who are not engaged in any bellicose action to be considered as participants, even if they support their home country. The key factor is whether they participate in the prosecution of the war in a very direct fashion.
This is the issue when we discuss the trials of the various members of the military that were overturned by President Trump. As best I can tell by reading the various news media (yes, including Fox News for those conservatives who believe there is only one true news media) the argument by the President was that they were serving their country and therefore should be excused from the war crimes of which they were convicted. This means that there is a tacit acknowledgment that the rules were not followed but that they should be forgiven anyway simply because they fought for the USA.
But, the problem is that those who engage in such behavior are no longer fighting because they love what is behind them but because they hate what is in front of them. Rather than carrying out an imperfect version of just war, they have changed and begun carrying out a set of personal acts of revenge based on the hate they experience for those whom they are fighting. This begins to undercut the whole idea of justice.
What begins as an act of personal revenge against a supposed enemy combatant quickly escalates into a loss of justice for any and all who have participated on the other side of the conflict. Worse, that type of behavior begins to encourage the other side to increase their mistreatment, terrorism, and even torture of any whom they might capture from our own side. After all, if we do it, does that not justify them doing it? We can argue that they started it, but that quickly becomes a viciously circular argument that leads to unending horrors, such as what happened during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. If you do not know what that is, then look it up.
So, I oppose the pardons by President Trump, not because I hate our military but because I love our military. I served and am a veteran. But, if we let our military ethics decay below any guidance by St. Augustine, then we are no longer Christian. If we begin to consider some type of judgment based on suspicion to be righteous, then we might as well be the devil himself. If we want to claim to be a Christian nation with a Christian military then we need to follow the counsels of St. Augustine, St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom, etc., with regard to war and its prosecution.
Leave a Reply