Thursday, March 27, 2003

I understand that you might support the war if you sincerely believe that it will result in a net decrease in the suffering of innocent people. But if you believe that, and you also believe that many of Iraq's soldiers in effect have guns pointed at their heads and are fighting unwillingly, it seems to me that you have to include their deaths and injuries in the toll of suffering by the innocent. Obviously, in a war each side is going to try to kill or incapacitate as many soldiers on the other side as possible -- but if you're trying to do moral calculus about the rightness of this war for the U.S., your equation is incomplete unless you count among its victims the soldiers who might have lived through containment but will die or be injured in this war.

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