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Letters

Bombing Baghdad

On 16th February, it was widely reported that American and British planes had bombed a suburb of Baghdad, causing a number of civilian deaths. In our last issue we invited readers to say what they thought about the incident.

I BEGIN WITH some general observations. The reflective individual will be sensitive to the difficulty of enumerating facts upon which to adjudicate a dispute. Acute partialism may colour both the premises from which opponents reason and their reports about the legitimacy of using lethal force: the bias will typically have to be equal, after all, to whatever it takes for either side to claim that they are right and the other is wrong. Even a consequentialist will seek to justify the killing of one or more for the sake of preserving himself or those whom he chooses to identify with. In the face of morally vociferous conflicting reports, then, the reflective individual may resign himself to not making a decisive adjudication (where adjudication can but need not mean taking sides).

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