Centre for Military Ethics: Ethics Playing Cards

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Is it acceptable to use the same methods and weapons as the enemy if they have used them first, even if they are forbidden?

What do you think? This would be in breach of International Law. Does the fact that the enemy has used such weapons legitimise their use?

The enemy may use forbidden weapons because it is unaffected by criticism, and wants to draw us into moral dilemmas. Although difficult, we must maintain the rules of war. If the enemy break the rules and we follow them, we descend to the same moral levels as those we are fighting. It is important to remember that responding to an asymmetric enemy in kind may risk turning the very people you are there to protect against you.

David Whetham, ‘Ethics, Law and Conflict’ in David Whetham (ed.), Ethics, Law and Military Operations, (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2011), p118.

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