Moral Obligation In Cartesia

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Even though this is an entirely internal matter, the United States has a moral obligation to invade Cartesia. The moral obligation of the US is to extinguish the brutal genocidal civil war raging between dueling ethnic groups. Over the past ten years in Cartesia, a brutal genocidal civil war has raged between rival ethnic groups. Tens of thousands of civilians have been massacred. Therefore, it is desirable and just that some party intervene and stop the injustices. While war is without a doubt an evil, it is necessary in certain contexts. Deane, (1963) writes, “War is always an evil, though on occasions it may be necessary in order to prevent worse evils” (156) Taking Deane’s summary of St. Augustine to heart, we have a moral obligation to …show more content…

Essentially for something of this gravity to occur something has to go really poorly. This thing is reason. Reason becomes corrupted. Both Dr. Crockett and St. Thomas Aquinas provide some guidance on how this occurs. They both point to the corruption of reason. In the view of both Dr. Crockett and St. Thomas Aquinas, Cartesia descended into a vicious genocide and civil war due to corruption of reason. In articles five and six of Aquinas’ question 94, Thomas lays out the possible manners by which this can occur. Aquinas, “Some men have a reason that has been distorted by passion, or by evil habits, or by bad natural relations.” (50). He then provides historical examples such as the ancient Germans, who apparently had a problem with stealing things. Perhaps foreshadowing what was to come in the twentieth century. A modern example of the corruption of reason would be the 9/11 hijackers flying planes into the World Trade Centers. Their reason was perverted. In what manner their reason was corrupted is up for debate. But, there is no doubt that their reason was perverted. According to Dr. Crockett, we can deduce different manners by which reason can become corrupted. There exist three ways by which individual reason can be corrupted and two ways by which societal reason can be perverted. The three individual reasons are by passion, evil …show more content…

In his writings, St. Augustine touches on the idea of how we should treat those who are “merely following orders”. St. Augustine sides with those who claim that they are merely following orders. Deane (1963), writes, “The soldier must simply obey his leader. He is not guilty of wrongdoing if he fights in obedience to the commands of his rulers, even if it is clear that the monarch has acted unjustly” In the hypothetical of St. Augustine sitting on the Nuremberg Court situation, St. Augustine would side with those who were just following orders. Therefore, according to St. Augustine, the former oppressors are innocent so long as they were following