"Just and Unjust Wars" Excerpt

Here is the closing paragraph from Micheal Walzers thought provoking book "Just and Unjust Wars", 3rd Edition, Basic Books, 2000.

Nonviolent defense depends upon noncombatant immunity. For this reason, it is no service to the cause to ridicule the rules of war or to insist (as Tolstoy did) that violence is always and necessarily unrestrained. When one wages a "war without weapons," one appeals for restraint from men with weapons. It is not likely that these men, soldiers subject to military discipline, are going to be converted to the creed of non-violence. Nor is it critical to the success of the "war" that they be converted, but only that they be held to their own punative standards. The appeal that is made to them takes this form: "You cannot shoot at me, because I am not shooting at you; nor am I going to shoot at you. I am your enemy and will remain so as long as you occupy my country. But I am a noncombatant enemy, and you must coerce and control me, if you can, without violence." The appeal simply restates the argument about civilian rights and and soldierly duties that underlies the war convention and provides its substance. And this suggests that the transformation of war into a political struggle has as its prior condition the restraint of war as a military struggle. If we are to aim at the transformation, as we should, we must begin by insisting upon the rules of war and by holding soldiers rigidly to the norms they set.

The restraint of war is the beginning of peace.

This paragraph will be understood much better after reading the book in its entirety. I highly recommend this book as it examines central questions surrounding war and morality, rules of war and the war convention. You may not agree with his ideas, but it never hurts to educate yourself to new ideas. It is thought-provoking if anything, and is definitely on my recommended list.