Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: War and National Security

CASE 3: THE CONDUCT OF WAR

C a s e 3  THE CONDUCT OF W AR 81 Case Study A. Individual Conduct Jason is a Jewish American soldier in his second year of army service. He is stationed in a foreign country in which the U.S. is engaged in military operations. He is 20 years old. When Jason enlisted, he took an oath to obey the orders of his superiors , whom he respects for their experience in the battlefield. However, Jason is fearful—for his life and for his future career, even though he thinks that, by and large, his superiors know best how to preserve them both. At the same time, Jason knows that the United States is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, which establish internationally-recognized rules of war, but he is not very clear as to what they entail. He also has a sense that there are moral duties in all aspects of life, including war, that transcend international and military law. These include showing as much respect as possible for the value of life, even when facing an enemy on the battlefield, in accordance with the Jewish doctrine that each person is created in the image of God and deserves to be treated with dignity. In light of international law, Jewish values, and the ethics that apply to military service, what would you advise Jason to do if the sergeant of his squad instructs him to do any of the following? • break into a home in search of militants • shoot anyone who comes out of a particular home • throw a hand grenade at a school because militants are reported to be inside • rape women in order to intimidate the enemy • kill family members of militants to force them to come forward • kill family members of militants, even if those being sought are dead • torture suspects in order to get information from them • torture suspects in order to humiliate and/or intimidate them Case 3: The Conduct of War Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: WAR AND NATIONAL SECURITY 82 B. Military Conduct If your country is engaged in war, should your military have the right to: • engage in torture in order to elicit potentially life-saving information about an enemy’s activities or plans? • engage in targeted killings of leaders or members of enemy nations or organizations? • take hostages with the intent of exchanging them for prisoners? • engage in targeted bombing of military sites, even if it involves “collateral damage”? Would your response to any of the situations mentioned above change if your country was responding to terrorist attacks instead of fighting in a declared war? What if war has not been explicitly declared against a country, but there are military operations taking place there, as in the Korean conflict in the 1950s or in Iraq in the 2000s? C. Non-Battlefield Conduct In early 1948, prior to the formal establishment of the State of Israel, but during the time that the British were withdrawing, 35 Hebrew University students were sent to try to hold on to the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion, southeast of Jerusalem. On their way, they met an old Arab shepherd. Because of his age and their need to move swiftly, they could not take him hostage; but they feared that if they did not kill him, he would alert the Arabs in the region that they were coming. Ultimately, they did not kill him, and he did alert the Arabs about them. As a result, all 35 were killed. Should they have killed the shepherd? D. Nuclear/Chemical Weapons Was it right for President Truman to order that atomic bombs be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 in order to end the war with Japan, saving the lives of possibly hundreds of thousands of American troops, but at the expense of Japanese civilians? Would it be any different if World War II happened today and our President ordered chemical weapons to be used against the Japanese? What is the difference, if any, between using chemical or nuclear weapons and using conventional bombs or missiles? 83 Traditional Sources Compiled by Uzi Weingarten and the Editors The Conduct of War 1. Deuteronomy 20:10–14, 19–20 When you approach a town to attack it, you shall offer it terms of peace. If it responds peaceably and lets you in, all the people present there shall serve you at forced labor. If it does not surrender to you, but would join battle with you, you shall lay siege...