Information and comments on the essay:
Moral dilemmas of World War II
From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee
Find out more, including where to buy books and ebooks
Read or download this essay as a PDF file at: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4eNv8KtePyKc0VhTnU5azlZeDQ/edit?usp=sharing |
| Chum For Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters |
Moral dilemmas of World War II
World War II had an entirely different character than The
Great War. Advancing technology continued to increase the destructive power of
armies and their ability to project that power, often in sudden and unexpected
ways. World War II became alarmingly dangerous. The determination to
definitively end this war posed a great many strategic and morally equivocal
choices.
World War I followed centuries of colonialism and national
consolidation. At that point, a bunch of bully-boys were ready and anxious to
play king-of-the-mountain. Some of them played very rough and everybody got
hurt. For the most part, they came away determined to play nicer in the future.
Most of the world believed that they had learned the lessons of full-out
nationalism.
As things worked out, social conventions (and faltering
economics) had developed to the point that colonies could attempt (and usually
gain) independence. World War II played out the end to large-scale overt
military conquest when a pair of hard-core bad boys
