War Ethics Debate

The cluster focuses on the moral and human costs of war, debating the brutality of killing soldiers and civilians, justifications for violence, compassion for conscripts, and the realities faced by those who fight versus those who decide.

📉 Falling 0.3x Politics & Society
4,441
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#1353
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
1
2008
15
2009
58
2010
112
2011
59
2012
103
2013
227
2014
124
2015
267
2016
246
2017
217
2018
361
2019
272
2020
252
2021
335
2022
642
2023
411
2024
387
2025
323
2026
29

Keywords

NATO US WW2 PMS USSR ISIS THAT TV APC wikipedia.org war soldiers killing civilians wars die lives guys innocent people bad guys

Sample Comments

gdy Feb 3, 2016 View on HN

"human considerations when sending people to war, ability to be brutally pragmatic" Don't you think these two are contradictory? :-)

gpawl Jul 18, 2017 View on HN

the people who die in war aren't the people who decide to get into a war.

runarberg Oct 24, 2020 View on HN

This simply isn’t true. And even if it were, that is still no excuse. Terrible things happen in war. Innocent people die or get seriously scarred in war, often for decades to come after the war ends. Being “better then the opposing party” is no excuse and provides no comfort to the victims of war.

Dalewyn Oct 5, 2024 View on HN

I'm upvoting you to counter the downvotes because that is the brutal reality of war, particularly if the top brass (on both sides) don't actually have anything to lose.

SmellyGeekBoy Jun 5, 2017 View on HN

We're literally at war. In a war, it's not just "their" guys that get killed. It's a two-way thing. It's amazing how many people don't seem to get this.

Aeglaecia Jun 12, 2025 View on HN

how does the average member of society benefit from being forced to go to war and die ?

hammyhavoc May 3, 2023 View on HN

Sorry, killing human beings en masse can never be a good thing.Have some compassion. Countless Russians are being conscripted to fight a war they don't want to. These are all children of someone.That things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce can happen speaks volumes about this. The wars are between countries, not their people.Don't lose you

jerry40 Jun 17, 2017 View on HN

It was a war, wasn't it? Millions and millions have died, we just can't imagine what was happening at that horrible period. Now it is very easy to say "I would never do THAT!", but who knows.

licebmi__at__ May 1, 2023 View on HN

Yet rhetoric against war seems to be about poor American soldiers who give their lives abroad, rather than civilians. I don’t think it’s far fetched to think that people will care less about humanity and civilians if the mortality is reduced for your own army.

kspacewalk2 Feb 8, 2024 View on HN

It's no more and no less "disgusting" than being burned in an APC, have your limbs torn off in a trench by an artillery shell, or slowly bleeding out after being shot in a field. You just normally don't see those deaths, and here you saw one. Why does that make you not care who wins this war, the ones waging a fascist colonial war or the ones defending their families from it?