CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

war should be entered into without a clear understanding of what is to be achieved
thereby.
The reason war fought at ‘utopian’ behest is more likely, according to realists, to be
longer lasting, is because, having gone to war in moral cause, the utopian is logically
precluded from settling for any pragmatic conclusion that fails to do justice to the moral
principles in whose name the conflict was entered into. One might consider, in this
regard, the rejection of the Vance-Owen peace plan for the Balkans, on the grounds that
in accepting, arguably, the reality of the situation, it appeared to reward Serb
aggression.
The second claim that Fotion ascribes to realists is that once war starts, then again there
can be no recourse to moral consideration; what matters is winning and no holds are
barred. By way of example he cites Genghis Khan: ‘The greatest joy a man can have is
victory: to conquer one’s enemies’ armies, to pursue them, to deprive them of their
possessions, to reduce their families to tears, to ride on their horses, and to make love to
their wives and daughters.’ 29 Lest we wish to disregard this as a non-European attitude
to war, there is this passage in Shakespeare’s Henry V, reflecting at least an Elizabethan
view, if not that of the age of ‘chivalry’ itself:
For as I am a soldier/ …./ If I begin the batt’ry once again/ I will not leave the
half-achieved Harfleur/ Till in her ashes she lie buried./ The gate of mercy shall
be all shut up,/ And the fleshed soldier, rough and hard of heart,/ In liberty of
bloody hand shall range/ With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass/ Your
fresh fair virgins and your flow’ring infants./ …../ What is it to me, when you
yourselves are cause, /If your pure maidens fall into the hand/ Of hot and forcing
violation/ ……/ …In a moment look to see/ the blind and bloody soldier with
foul hand/ Defile the locks of your shrill shrieking daughters;/ Your fathers
taken by the silver beards/ And their most reverend heads dashed to the walls;/
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,/…. 30
And more modern history, too, is replete with this view that whatever moderation is
considered in determining when and whether to go to war, once war is engaged upon
then it is a bloody and beastly business in which soldiers have not the leisure to reflect
on right and wrong, even if they felt obliged so to do. Coates, in this regard, holds up
the example of Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris, AOCinC Bomber Command, and the chief
architect of the strategy of bombing German cities to force German capitulation in the
10