War and Normative Visibility: Interactions in the Nomos

Abstract

Look around — behold thousands of slain, thousands of wounded, writhing with anguish and groaning with agony and despair.. ..Here again lie headless trunks, and bodies torn and struck down by cannon shot; such death is sudden, horrid.. ..Some readers will call this scene romantic: others disgusting; no matter; it is faithful; and it would be well for Kings, politicians and generals, if, while they talk of victories with exaltation, and defeats with philosophical indifference, they allow their fancies to wander to the theatre of war, and the field of carnage. (Sherer 1824, surveying the field of Albuera after battle) We have waged war in the most ferocious and ruthless way that has ever been waged. We waged it against fierce and ruthless enemies that it was necessary to destroy. Now we have destroyed one of our enemies and forced the capitulation of the other. For the moment, we [the United States] are the strongest power in the world. It is very important that we do not become the most hated.. ..We need to study and understand certain basic problems. .and remember that no weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution, but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one. An aggressive war is the great crime against everything good in the world. A defensive war, which must necessarily turn aggressive at the earliest moment, is the great counter crime.