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Just And Unjust Wars Essay

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In his book Just and Unjust Wars, Michael Walzer discusses the intricacies of noncombatant immunity. Walzer defines noncombatants as those who are immune from direct attack by an enemy. He derives this immunity from an individual’s natural rights to life and liberty. Walzer explains that an individual who threatens these natural rights of others loses his immunity, rendering this individual a combatant, and he can therefore be subject to direct attack by an enemy. Walzer further elaborates on this point by providing the example of soldiers. Becoming soldiers, regardless of enlistment or conscription, results in the loss of immunity of the soldiers, rendering them combatants. The soldier, by virtue of job description, innately threatens the life and liberty of opponents; therefore, soldiers lose immunity as …show more content…

Walzer argues that consenting to some actions results in the forfeit of these natural rights and thus loss of immunity. Walzer depicts the concept of immunity as a concrete entity that can be retained or lost, with people assumed to be immune until a loss of immunity, which is proven by their posing a threat to others’ natural rights or by their forfeiting natural rights by some acts of their own. Theodore J. Koontz reviewed Walzer’s book and qualifies this claim by eliminating the second clause; he poses that consent is irrelevant in the debate of immunity and that civilians should always be considered noncombatants, immune to direct attack regardless of their roles in a war effort. This is partly in due to the fact that one cannot be absolutely sure whether civilians gave consent to partake in a war effort and whether this consent was given under free will rather than any under direct or indirect duress. Since this uncertainty cannot be clarified during a conflict, civilians must be avoided at all costs, rendering the matter of consent

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