The death in Afghanistan in combat of former football player Pat Tillman is just the latest in a series of deaths that have led me to reconsider my attitudes toward those who go abroad in the uniforms of the U.S. military. A good starting point is the attitude that was expressed by Herbert Spencer, when he exclaimed about the second Afghan war that “When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don’t care if they are shot themselves.’ That obviously only applies to volunteers, not to conscripts, and it only applies to those who ask nothing about the justice of their cause.
Pat Tillman and all the others who have been killed in Afghanistan and in Iraq were volunteers. Did they ask about the justice of their cause? Most certainly in the case of Afghanistan and most certainly in the case of Pat Tillman, who gave up a lucrative multi-million dollar career for $18,000 a year as an Army Ranger, the answer is yes. He died as an Army Ranger hunting down Osama bin Laden and his accomplices. A more just cause would be hard to imagine.
The sentiment expressed by Spencer was occasioned by a purely imperial war that was in no way related to defensive purposes. Indeed, in that same essay (which was published in 1902), he wrote, “Suppose our country is in the right ‘ suppose it is resisting invasion. Then the idea and feeling embodied in the cry are righteous. It may be effectively contended that self-defence is not only justified but is a duty.” Self-defense against al Qaeda terrorists is certainly justified. Was force similarly justified in the case of Iraq? As the facts have turned out, no. But as they were presented to the U.S. public, yes. (I was not convinced by Powell’s speech to the U.N. Security Council or by the other evidence brought forth by the administration and its supporters and therefore I opposed the war. But I did listen and could have been convinced by evidence that Saddam’s terror regime posed a serious threat to the U.S. I just didn’t think that the evidence presented was sufficient.) Furthermore, a bad — even disastrous — decision was already made and we now have to decide what’s the best path forward. You can’t undo the past. As such, those volunteer soldiers in Iraq who have been fighting against authentically evil enemies are clearly justified in their actions. They deserve support. And we should mourn each and every one who is killed.
I should point out, as well, that the U.S. armed forces and their allies (the British, the Poles, the Italians, the Bulgarians, the Australians, the Danes, the Estonians, and all the rest) are perhaps the most law-governed military force ever fielded. The careful attention to matters of military law and the great efforts to limit harm to noncombatants are truly remarkable in the history of modern warfare. To point that out is not to justify the initiation of the war (it would be absurd to justify a foolish war because it was waged within legal and moral constraints), but it should be understood and acknowledged.