CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and
conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow-soldiers entered
upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to
change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would
now be attainable by negotiation.
I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a
party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.
The First World War, entered into on a tide of patriotic fervour turned rapidly sour by
the realities of industrial killing, is perhaps more replete than any other with examples
of men’s motivation, once grounded in moral justification, gradually undermined as the
war progressed. To give but one further example, Rudyard Kipling’s response to the
war, full of imperial pride and moral righteousness at its commencement, turned to
bitter disillusionment after his son’s death 223 :
And:
If any question why we died.
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
I could not dig: I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?
The First World War is perhaps also a special case because it involved such a massive
mobilisation of an (initially) volunteer citizen army. Any consideration of motivation
needs to distinguish between professional soldiers, volunteer citizens and conscripts, all
of whom have different motivations and will be affected differently by the justification
of the cause – and indeed may have different attitudes, also, to conduct. This need to
distinguish remains true today. In Iraq the motivation of the professional soldier may be
very different from that of the US National Guardsman and different again for the
British Territorial. 224
Richard Holmes, when considering in his comprehensive study of the realities of war,
Firing Line, what motivates soldiers to fight, notes first of all that some simply enjoy it
and most, even conscripts, find something appealing about their military service, albeit
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