Morality of our Military

I believe that America’s military role in other countries is an extremely complex subject that had been debated by many in the past hundred years. I won’t pretend to know all of the nuances of why and how we get ourselves into so many conflicts we originally have no part in, but I do think it’s the civic duty of Americans to discuss the morality of it. I will be approaching the topic with the arguments from both supporters and those against military expansion into overseas affairs. I think both sides make a very strong case, but I obviously have my own opinions and bias towards a particular side. I think since America is currently invested in some overseas conflicts; I should go over some of the reasons why. One of the main reasons to be why morally we are there is to protect those that are living under oppressive forces. A lot of the civilians in third-world countries are being abused by their governments and local leaders. They don’t have any real way to help themselves so you could argue that America stepping in to remove the oppressive leaders is our moral responsibility since we are capable of doing so. I more financial reason to do so is because going into a lot of these countries often provides us with some of their natural resources. A lot of the Middle Eastern countries tend to have oil that the American military can obtain or take once we have entered these countries. You could turn that into a moral argument of the military providing resources for citizens back in the country. Another huge moral argument made is that we’re simply eliminating those that wish to harm us. This was used a lot after 9/11 in order to rally America behind the cause of going into Afghanistan to search for Al-Qaeda. It’s what the military is primarily there to do, protect us.

            As for protecting us, one argument opposing military intervention is that going into these countries that have very little threat to the homeland isn’t actually keeping us much safer and is instead just throwing soldiers into battle for purely monetary gain. That is a very strong argument because the death of American soldiers is what most people disagree the most when talking about war. Another opposing argument is that the conflicts overseas aren’t really our business or our moral obligation because we’re threatening American lives in the process.