Marc LiVecche

McDonald Distinguished Scholar of Ethics, War, & Public Life @ProvMagazine, adjunct professor US Naval Academy, author: The Good Kill: Just War & Moral Injury

[Sophie Pedder @PedderSophie]

D-Day commemoration, Omaha Beach, June 6 2024

Zelensky arrived, the crowd applauded. And then this happened:

🇺🇸 veteran: You’re a saviour of the people

Zelensky: No, no, you saved Europe

🇺🇸 veteran: My hero

Zelensky: No, you are our hero

🇺🇸🇫🇷🇺🇦

[@markdtooley @markdtooley]

First Annual Maymester on Christian Realism @ProvMagazine was four-day intensive seminar on Christian Realism taught by @PaulDMiller2 @mlivecche.

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

Plenty wrong here, but @myleswerntz's assertion tht the language of virtue is too often replaced by the language of law isn't one of them. Happily, our service academies ground just war study firmly in moral character. Lethality & virtue go well together.
https://t.co/zMckYFKbdj

[Providence Magazine @ProvMagazine]

Providence is now accepting applicantions for the Jean Bethke Elshtain Fellowship in Christian Realism, a nine-month educational program on the Jewish and Christian roots of realist ethics in foreign policy and public life, led by @mlivecche

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

It's also an odd move to say that fellow eggheads, wonks, pundits, and anyone else not read into the classified briefings have to have moral certainly or oppose the war. They're allowed tentative judgements based on available evidence.

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

Whatever this might be in keeping w/, it's not in keeping w/ classical JWT; which posits both required criteria (right authority, just cause, proper intent) & prudential ones: proportionality of ends, reasonable chance of success, last resort. The latter are, literally, judgments

[Edward Feser @FeserEdward]

At @firstthingsmag I show that the standard view in the Catholic just war tradition is that for a war to be just, it's not enough that it be merely arguable or even probable that it meets all just war criteria. We must be morally certain that it meets them https://t.co/gIeMHsrtnG

[Daniel Strand @DDFStrand]

Catholics completely remade the Just War tradition in the 80’s and are doing it again. This is not “Just War Doctrine”.

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

@DDFStrand The first point is in the past tense. The word "certain" might suggest this needn't be a strict reading, but "damage inflictED" seems to eliminate premptive force as ethically permitted (Which is not the traditional view; nor is it morally serious or responsible). 😐

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

@Pmccrsp @FeserEdward But let's assume we think airstrikes, 5th domain warfare, info ops, and limited naval and special operations will suffice.

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

Grotious didn't live w/ nukes. Let's ignore the debate over the "jus ad bellum" justification for @RealIRAN in order to agree on a premise that all serious moral thinkers should agree on: modern allowances for what makes for premptive war need to be expanded.

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

@Pmccrsp @FeserEdward and discriminate as possible. For our test case, I think we have sufficient detail to agree the deontological requirements of authority, cause, and intent could be satisfied and premptive action justified. I'm less concerned, here, about the prudential requirement.

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

Say it aint so @FeserEdward, @Pmccrsp!

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

is "nuclear panic" & tht we shld trust Mullahs would never risk destruction of their entire nation w/ a nuclear first strike (b/c, you know, they think just like us!). Crazy, I say! But, wld they also insist tht even this hypothetical doesn't warrant premptive attack? I think so.

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

@barob05 B/C it's an offshoot of virtue grounded in duty. Part of what a human being is for is to exercise dominion & love of neighbor in light of the fall. In the face of certain aggressions, doing harm to the aggressor is an expression of dominion-keeping & fidelity to the duty of care.

[Marc LiVecche @mlivecche]

To be sure, it would be a terrible theme for an "eve of battle" speech. Also: the moral/non-moral evil distinction takes getting used to. But, left of boom, it's proved helpful in the classroom & over pints. It helps clarify a warfighter's experiences...

[Michael Brendan Dougherty @michaelbd]

@ddeanetheology @mlivecche I think it’s impossible to properly motivate soldiers by telling them their actions are inherently evil. “A necessary evil.”

They are good when in a just war.