Henry Sidgwick and 'Mischief' in Iraq

By Erica Hach

Henry Sidgwick states that “During war it is impermissible to do any mischief which does not attend materially to victory, nor any mischief of which the conduciveness to the end is slight in comparison with the amount of mischief” (Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, 129). I’m going to break this apart and apply it to the war that the United States engaged in with Iraq. 

Sidgwick’s first main point is that a state should not do anything that does not directly lead to victory in war. Whether or not the war itself was justified is completely irrelevant according to this statement. It seems that the United States has basically followed this part of the statement. However, there have been occasions in other nearby places when individuals have crossed such boundaries (such as when American soldiers peed on the dead bodies of the Taliban in Afghanistan).

It’s Sidgwick’s second point where the United States will be questioned more. The second part calls states to question whether they’re doing more good than bad. Are the bad acts that have been committed “worth it” for the victory? Many lives were lost during United States’ involvement in Iraq and now that we have pulled our troops, it’s questionable whether victory was even obtained at all.  Ned Parker of the Council of Foreign Relations explains that even though the violence has somewhat subsided since United State’s initial involvement, that there is still a legitimate fear among the Iraqi population. So was it really even worth it for the United States to get involved and for so many lives to be lost if circumstances have hardly changed?

It is also important to consider one very important aspect that Sidgwick does not include, and that is human rights. Some actions are simply never justified, regardless of how crucial they are to victory. Society and humanity has some very strict rules and limitations on what the morality of wars and warfare, which is another topic entirely. The main point here is that while Henry Sidgwick refers only to necessity and proportionality in warfare, it is also very important to consider human rights.