Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury

The just war tradition, rooted in Greco-Roman and Hebraic intellectual traditions, argues that killing comes in different kinds: morally neutral, morally permitted, and morally obligatory. The Good Kill embraces this tradition to argue for the morality of killing in justified wars, offering potential remedies to help warfighters manage the bruising without becoming irreparably morally injured.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 256 pages
\n Publication date: 30 September 2021
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
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War wounds the soul, not just the physical violence inflicted upon them. Moral injuries, also known as psychic traumas, arise from actions or condones that go against deeply held moral principles. It is not surprising that committing atrocities or accidentally killing innocent people would hurt the soul of warfighters. However, many warfighters hold the common belief that killing another human being is always wrong, even in the context of war. This paradoxical commitment makes warfighting morally injurious.

Clinical research among combat veterans has established a link between killing in combat and moral injury, as well as between moral injury and suicide. Our warfighters, even those who serve honorably, are dying by their own hands at devastating rates, casualties not of physical threats but of moral ones.

The just war tradition, rooted in our Greco-Roman and Hebraic intellectual traditions, offers a moral framework for thinking about war. It recognizes that killing comes in different kinds: some are always wrong, like murder, while others are morally neutral, such as unavoidable accidents, and still others are morally permitted, even obligatory, in justified wars.

The Good Kill, a book by Marc LiVecche, embraces this tradition and argues for the morality of killing in justified wars. LiVecche does not deny the morally bruising realities of combat, but offers potential remedies to help warfighters manage the bruising without resorting to violence.

By understanding the different kinds of killing and the moral framework of the just war tradition, we can strive to reduce the moral injuries suffered by warfighters and prevent unnecessary deaths. It is essential to prioritize the well-being of our combat veterans and ensure that they receive the support and care they need to heal from the trauma of war.

\n Weight: 504g\n
Dimension: 164 x 242 x 25 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780197515808\n \n