Wartime Dialog between a Politician and a Dissenter

(fictional, but based on typical wartime realities)

by Larry Kuenning, 4/15/1999

Politician:

Our enemies are killing innocent people.

Dissenter:

Probably so. That always happens in war.

Politician:

We have to stop them.

Dissenter:

Nice idea. But how?

Politician:

By fighting them, of course.

Dissenter:

But I hear that your forces are killing innocent people too.

Politician:

That only happens by accident.

Dissenter:

If you didn't expect it, your planning wasn't very good. That always happens in war.

Politician:

Of course we expected it. But we don't have any alternative. As you say, that always happens in war.

Dissenter:

Let's get this straight. You foresaw that your forces would kill innocent people, and you still chose to send them on missions where this was sure to happen. That was no surprising accident. That was your choice.

Politician:

Well, we have to choose the lesser of two evils.

Dissenter:

So why is it a lesser evil when you kill innocent people and a greater evil when your enemies do it?

Politician:

All we're doing is trying to make them stop doing it.

Dissenter:

That's the same kind of thing your enemies say. All they're doing is trying to stop some greater evil that they see coming. As a result they kill some innocent people, and they call that a lesser evil. It's the same logic you use.

Politician:

That's just propaganda.

Dissenter:

You aren't very good at telling the truth yourself, as far as I've noticed.

Politician:

Look, no one with any good sense would call what they're doing a lesser evil.

Dissenter:

So do you have any better sense than they do? Has your so-called lesser evil prevented the greater evil your enemies are committing?

Politician:

Not yet, but we'll stop them eventually. That's why you have to support the fighting.

Dissenter:

"Not yet"? That's putting it mildly. They're killing more people now than before you started fighting them.

Politician:

See? They're really evil. We have to stop them.

Dissenter:

Didn't you know they were so evil before you started fighting?

Politician:

Of course we knew they were evil. That's why we went to war.

Dissenter:

If you knew they were so evil, didn't you foresee how they'd react when you went to war? You could have figured out that they'd become even more murderous.

Politician:

That's their own fault.

Dissenter:

But it's your fault too! You've set out to control them by force, and you say your whole reason for fighting is to make them stop. But your planning was so bad that you've made them worse than before. And now you want to tell me you have enough sense to pick the lesser of two evils? I don't think you have a clue.

Politician:

We'll make them stop when we win.

Dissenter:

Or else they'll make you stop when they win. Or maybe no one will win, and you'll just wear each other out with years of killing.

Politician:

That's why you have to support the war effort, to make sure we win, and quickly!

Dissenter:

But why should I support you and not them? You and your enemies both kill innocent people. You both say you're trying to prevent some greater evil. And neither of you has enough good sense to figure out which evil would really be greater or how to prevent it.

Politician:

How can you even ask which side to support? Don't you love your country?

Dissenter:

I love my country enough to try to keep it sane. But I love your enemies' country too. We're all one planet. I care as much for the people you're killing as for the people your enemies are killing. You can't choose right and wrong by where you live; otherwise your enemies would be right to fight for their country too.

Politician:

This is an emergency! Aren't you going to do anything?

Dissenter:

Well, doing nothing would at least be better than doing harm. But if I can find some way to do good without doing harm, I hope I'll have the courage to do it.

Politician:

You don't have any courage. If you did you'd already know what to do.

Dissenter:

Knowing the right thing to do takes sanity, good sense, and accurate information. When we have those things we'll find out who has the courage to act on them. But I don't expect accurate information from your propaganda machine. War makes facts hard to find. And it makes people too biased and angry to think straight.