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How to Defend a Free Society
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10984 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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6 / 1986 |
2,520 Words |
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Robert W. Poole, Jr.,
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What is the proper basis for national defense policy?
We must begin by remembering that we aspire to be a free society, a society based on certain moral principles. If our aim is to defend such a society, our defense policy must be consistent with those moral principles. Among those principles are individual liberty, individual moral responsibility for one's actions, the rule of law, and the principle that the end does not justify the means.
Three basic issues arise in devising a moral framework for national defense policy: purpose, jurisdiction, and means.
First of all, the purpose of defense policy must be to protect our rights, to defend against external threats to the survival and freedom of Americans. Other lofty goals--making the world safe for democracy or securing some alleged "national interest"--do not follow from the basic moral principles of a free society.
Second is the issue of jurisdiction. What is the proper scope of activities undertaken in the name of national defense? Given our belief in the rule of law, we must recognize the jurisdiction of other legal systems, whether they exist.
The normal protection afforded to persons and property by the government of a free society lies within its own jurisdiction and not within the jurisdictions of other states. This protection may also extend to domains which are outside of any state's jurisdiction, such as the high seas and outer space.
But a free society's citizens who travel or invest within another state's jurisdiction agree, by so doing, to accept that state's protection, such as it may be, rather than that of their own. The alternative would be the assertion of a "free" society's jurisdiction into that of other states--a perversion of the meaning of the rule of law.
The third basic question concerns the means used to carry out national defense. If we're serious when we assert that the ends do not justify the means, then the means used in national defense must be kept consistent with the purpose of that defense, namely, to protect rights. Means that depend upon violating rights must be rejected. This indicates that we must reject conscription a method of obtaining troops. Also, we may not adopt an "anything goes" approach to using military force.
This latter point leads us to the two basic questions posed by the "just war" theory: when to use military force and how to use it.
The free society's answer to the first is that military force may only be used in response to aggression.
The second question is more complex. There are a number of possible moral positions on how to use military force, once the decision has been made to use it, in response to aggression. The position that is most consistent with the principles of a free society is that all defensive force must be targeted against aggressive force.
But this idea raises several hard question: what about "innocent threats" such
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