Vicarious Warfare and the Problem of Moral Detachment

1. Vicarious Warfare and the Problem of Moral Detachment Dr. John Mark Mattox General Hugh Shelton Chair in Ethics U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

3. Vicarious(vəi-, vikēə∙riəs), a. [f. L. vicāriu-us adj. and sb., f. vic-is change, turn, stead, office, etc.]

4. servus vicarius (slave of a slave)

5. vicarius (head of a Roman diœcesis)

6. Vicarius Christi (The Pope)

7. Vicarius Christi (The Pope) vicarius (head of a Roman diœcesis) servus vicarius (slave of a slave)

8. Vicarious(vəi-, vikēə∙riəs), [f. L. vicāriu-us adj. and sb., f. vic-is change, turn, stead, office, etc.] Modern English cognates include: “vicar” “vice” [president]

9. Vicarious(vəi-, vikēə∙riəs), a. [f. L. vicāriu-us adj. and sb., f. vic-is change, turn, stead, office, etc.]

10. Definitions of “Vicarious” • “That [which] takes or supplies the place of another thing or person; substituted instead of the proper thing or person.”

14. Definitions of “Vicarious” • “That [which] takes or supplies the place of another thing or person; substituted instead of the proper thing or person.” • Is the act of vicarious warfare in question one that is appropriate to the circumstances for which it is contemplated?

15. Definitions of “Vicarious” • 2. “Endured or suffered by one person in place of another; accomplished or attained by the substitution of some other person, etc., for the actual offender.”

18. Definitions of “Vicarious” • 2. “Endured or suffered by one person in place of another; accomplished or attained by the substitution of some other person, etc., for the actual offender.” • Is the act of vicarious warfare in question one in which it is appropriate to shift a physical, psychological, or perhaps even moral burden from the authorizing agent to the deputized agent?

19. Definitions of “Vicarious” • 3. “Power, authority, etc. . . . exercised by one person or body of persons, as the representative or deputy of another.”

20. Definitions of “Vicarious” • 3. “Power, authority, etc. . . . exercised by one person or body of persons, as the representative or deputy of another.” • Since the Nation’s political leadership acts vicariously on behalf of the American people, should the military professional: • consent, at the direction of the political leadership, to fight in a war that appears not to reflect the sovereign will of the American people or • continue, at the behest of the political leadership, to fight in a war from which the American people have withdrawn their support?

21. Definitions of “Vicarious” 4a. “Performed or achieved by means of another, or by one person, etc., on behalf of another.”

22. Definitions of “Vicarious” 4a. “Performed or achieved by means of another, or by one person, etc., on behalf of another.” “Unconscious of their vicarious service, the butterfly and the bee . . . carry the fertilizing dust to the waiting stigma.”

23. Definitions of “Vicarious” 4a. “Performed or achieved by means of another, or by one person, etc., on behalf of another.” • To what extent should military professionals be held, or hold themselves, accountable for moral consequences that follow from acts that they perform vicariously?

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27. Definitions of “Vicarious” 4a. “Performed or achieved by means of another, or by one person, etc., on behalf of another.” 4b. “Possessed by one person but reckoned to the credit of another.”

28. “This, as I understand it, was the position of the early Protestants. They found the service of God buried in a system where obedience was dissipated into superstition; where sin was expiated by the vicarious virtues of other men; where, instead of leading a holy life, men were taught that their souls might be saved through masses said for them, at a money rate, by priests whose licentiousness disgraced the nation which endured it; a system in which, amidst all the trickery of the pardons, pilgrimages, indulgences,―double-faced as these inventions are―wearing one meaning in the apologies of theologians, and quite another to the multitude who live and suffer under their influence―one plain fact at least is visible. The people substantially learnt that all evils which could touch either their spirits or their bodies, might be escaped by means which resolved themselves, scarcely disguised, into the payment of moneys.”

29. Definitions of “Vicarious” 4a. “Performed or achieved by means of another, or by one person, etc., on behalf of another.” 4b. “Possessed by one person but reckoned to the credit of another.” Is it possible for the virtues of one group of military professionals to compensate vicariously for the human failings of other military professionals? Even if the virtuous vicarious acts of one group of military professionals can compensate for the general human failings of other military professionals, can these vicarious acts likewise expiate the moral failures of fellow military professionals?

31. Definitions of “Vicarious” 4a. “Performed or achieved by means of another, or by one person, etc., on behalf of another.” 4b. “Possessed by one person but reckoned to the credit of another.” Is it possible for the virtues of one group of military professionals to compensate vicariously for the human failings of other military professionals? Even if the virtuous vicarious acts of one group of military professionals can compensate for the humanfailings of other military professionals, can these vicarious acts likewise expiate the moral failures of fellow military professionals?

34. “On this vicarious principle, by which we appropriate to ourselves what others do for us, the whole structure of society is raised. Parents work and endure pain, that their children may prosper; children suffer for the sin of their parents, who have died before it bore fruit. ‘Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi.’ Sometimes it is a compulsory, sometimes a willing mediation. The punishment which is earned by the husband falls upon the wife; the benefits in which all classes partake are wrought out by the unhealthy or dangerous toil of the few. Soldiers endure wounds and death for those who sit at home; and ministers of state fall victims to their zeal for their countrymen, who do little else than criticize their actions. And so in some measure or way this law embraces all of us. We all suffer for each other, and gain by each other's sufferings; for man never stands alone here, though he will stand by himself one day hereafter; but here he is a social being, and goes forward to his long home as one of a large company.”

35. Definitions of “Vicarious” 4a. “Performed or achieved by means of another, or by one person, etc., on behalf of another.” 4b. “Possessed by one person but reckoned to the credit of another.” • Given the interrelatedness of society, what must we do, as military professionals, to ensure that the second-, third-, and Nth-order consequences of decisions to order Soldiers into violent, vicarious activity have been duly considered before the order is issued?

36. Definitions of “Vicarious” 5. “Denoting the performance, by or through one organ, of functions normally discharged by another.”

37. Definitions of “Vicarious” 5. “Denoting the performance, by or through one organ, of functions normally discharged by another.” • Will the emerging technologies associated with vicarious warfare afford for us the temptation to shift to mechanical means tasks that we as moral agents have a duty not to delegate to a machine? • Which specific duties, or what kind of duties, is it morally permissible to delegate to a machine? • Which specific duties, or what kind of duties, is it not morally permissible to delegate? • On what grounds are we to distinguish between the two?”

40. “May we never be subjected to the humiliation of dependence upon vicarious labour.”

44. Vicarious Warfare and the Problem of Moral Detachment Dr. John Mark Mattox General Hugh Shelton Chair in Ethics U.S. Army Command and General Staff College