Discussion post

Group Exercises discussion—what ideals would you go to war to defend? Throughout history people have gone to war. On many occasions, religious ideologies, political ideolo-gies, or economic ideologies have been at the root of those conflicts. The Crusades, World War II, and the American Civil War might be seen as examples of such conflicts, at least in the minds of some leaders and some combatants; ideological reasoning played a major role in explaining why each war was unavoidably necessary. Discuss with your peers the ideological beliefs and core values that, in your considered judgment, would make war unavoid-ably necessary. Beyond self-defense and the defense of the lives of your family and other members of your com-munity, are there principles, fundamental beliefs, and core values worthwhile to defend with your life and to protect the lives of those you love by waging war? Is freedom worthwhile? Is democracy? Would you go to war to end slavery, to prevent genocide, to free children from forced labor, to rescue fellow citizens from illegal detention in a foreign country, to protect commercial shipping on the high seas, or to save whales from being slaughtered for human food? Would you fight to regain your homeland, or to gain access to clean water? Would you go to war to free your ethnic group from an oppressor nation? If none of these is a worthwhile endeavor to you, is there any-thing that you personally would go to war to defend or to protect? Remember that whatever your group’s answer might be, you should expect that your answer works in reverse as well. That means that you should expect oth-ers to do no more and no less, should they perceive your behavior as demanding from them an identical bellicose response. Be prepared to give the very best reasons pos-sible for either the view that war would be the appropriate response of last resort in a given situation or that war is never an appropriate response no matter what the situa-tion. When considering the “no matter what” alternative, be sure to include in your reflections “self-defense and the defense of the lives of your family and other members of your community