There can be no question of ethics in the Russian army. She murders Ukrainian civilians: investigators recover bodies from a mass grave in Bucha, picture taken on April 8th.
Image: dpa
The peace ethic gets caught up in contradictions when it comes to the right of Ukrainians to defend themselves against the Russian aggressors. Only a war ethics can develop criteria for a just war. A guest post.
In Germany it is considered good manners to praise peace ethics and pacifism. Anyone who spoke up for war ethics and said that wars can be justified or even just had a difficult time. In view of the current situation, one is now in such a position if one wants to condemn Ukraine’s defensive war as immoral. As a way out of this dilemma, some invent a “pacifism” that allows war, or declare that wars are still unjust and unjustified, but defending Ukraine is morally permissible.
In the FAZ, Wolfgang Thierse called for a “self-critical” and “historically enlightened pacifism” that recognizes that “peace can require the use of strength against unjust regimes”. Since he gives the example “Hitler Germany”, he probably means a warlike deployment. At the same time, he declares that the West has behaved “quite pacifistly” in rejecting the establishment of a no-fly zone, which allegedly would have meant a “world war”.