Bombing Libya

by Massimo Pigliucci

As we all know, an international coalition has begun an air campaign against the forces of Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya. The air strikes are aimed at protecting the rebel civilian population that has been waging an uprising against Qaddafi’s dictatorship. This effort is being led by French and British forces (with heavy American support) and are backed by Arab nations, and authorized by the United Nations. Is this the right thing to do for the international community? Hell yes.

Readers of this blog know that I am no warmonger, I do not support nation building, and I’m generally very suspicious of the motives of any government when it comes to “spreading democracy” and the like. And yes, I am perfectly aware that Libya is a major oil producing country.

That said, it seems to be that in this case — at least so far — the coalition that is attacking Qaddafi is getting it exactly right. First, the goal is to protect civilians from an ongoing slaughter. Second, there is an actual uprising going on within the country, and one that has a decent chance of succeeding with international support. Third, diplomatic approaches have been tried and have failed. Fourth, the coalition is truly broad and truly international (unlike, you know, that other coalition...). Fifth, the United Nations has given a clear imprimatur to military action. Sixth, there is no discussion (at least at the moment) of ground troops or nation building.

While there is nothing ideal in the world of politics, and there certainly isn’t anything clean about any war, the above conditions — it seems to me — make this initiative as clear and close to ideal as possible.

Of course, it is still war. Once European, American and other countries’ planes started bombing Qaddafi’s forces, the world is effectively at war against Libya having fired the first rounds.

It is instructive therefore to look at how the international conflict with Libya stands up to an analysis in terms of just war theory (which is not an oxymoron). The theory has its roots in Roman and early Catholic history, going back to the writings of Cicero, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. In modern terms, philosophers who have written about just war include Richard Norman (Ethics, Killing, and War, 1995), Brian Orend (War and International Justice: A Kantian Perspective, 2001), and Michael Walzer (On War and Justice, 2001).

Broadly speaking, there are seven criteria that have to be satisfied for a war to be declared just: just cause, right intention, legitimate authority, comparative justice, last resort, probability of success, and proportionality.

Just cause: interestingly, and perhaps a bit counterintuitively, this does not include punishment of past wrongs, but does include imminent danger to innocent life, which clearly applies in this case.

Right intention: which means that the war has to be waged in order to stop suffering and injustice, not for material gains. Since the international coalition is going to pay for the cost of the war, and does not appear to intend to occupy Libya or exploit its resources, this criterion is also satisfied.

Legitimate authority: both the fact that this is an effort by a truly international coalition, and the fact that it is authorized by the world’s broadest community of countries, means that the authority here is as legitimate as it gets.

Comparative justice: the idea is that in war there are going to be injustices on both sides, but that the conflict is justified in cases in which the injustices on one side far outweigh those on the other side. Clearly Qaddafi’s forces have committed by far the largest share of injustices in this case.

Last resort: the war is just if all other non violent forms of intervention have been exhausted, or in case the catastrophe is imminent and there does not seem to be a way to resolve the problem without aggression. It is notable that the allies have repeatedly maintained that if and when Qaddafi agrees to a cease fire against the rebels, the air attacks will stop and diplomatic negotiations will resume.

Probability of success: the cause is supposed to be not futile which, given the players on the two sides, clearly is the case.

Proportionality: the benefits of waging the conflict have to be proportioned to the anticipated harm done by the conflict itself. In this case the goals are both to save civilian lives and to facilitate as much as possible the internal movement toward reforms in Libya, both of which justify the hopefully limited casualties (including civilian) that will inevitably result from the attack.

So yes, the international war on Qaddafi is ethically justified, at least as far as things stand right now. But, the skeptic will say, by the same token shouldn’t we also intervene in other Arab countries currently in turmoil? What about Iran? Syria? Bahrain? And so on and so forth. (Not forgetting other evil dictatorships around the globe, beginning with North Korea.)

There are at least two answers to these issues, one pragmatic, the other principled. The pragmatic one, of course, is that even a broad international coalition has limited resources, so that it makes sense to pick one’s conflicts based on the criteria above, as well as on the urgency of the unfolding situation. The more principled answer, I think, is that international assistance of this type is warranted only when there is 1) a widespread uprising inside a country, 2) that uprising has a reasonable chance of succeeding and 3) when it is truly aimed against a tyrant (or aristocracy of tyrants). The first criterion, for instance, excludes Iran, at least at the moment, since the Iranians are not quite at the point of the Libyans (or, recently, of the Tunisians). The second criterion excludes, for example, China during the Tienanmen revolt. The third criterion excludes interventions like the American support of the Chilean coup d’etat that resulted in the murder of President Allende in the “other” 9/11 (of 1973).

Let us hope that things will turn out well for the Libyan people, and that their example, together with those of the people of Egypt and Tunisia, will truly awaken a much needed Arab Spring.