President Bush and the American government were given three difficult decisions to make. (1) How do we protect the people of America from another 9/11? (2) How do we bring those who hurt the nation to justice? (3) How do we stop another country from doing the same thing to us? I think act/welfare utilitarianism is the best theory to apply to such a difficult dilemma as the way that we, as a nation, dealt with September 11th and the war on terror.
The war on terror has been long and damaging and the nation was forced to forge ahead without precedent for how it should act and what it should do. Following the welfare/act utilitarian method, I have established that Homeland Security is a good program in that it does let us know when to be cautious. The PATRIOT Act was similar in its potential for giving peace of mind; however the damage from invasion of privacy and imprisonment without representation is sufficient to conclude that it is ethically wrong. Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan was shown to be a positive in that the nation banded together against a common foe as well to stop terrorists from attacking again and spreading the unhappiness. The last action analyzed, the War in Iraq, proved to be difficult to assess given that it requires so much speculation about what might happen in the future. However, my utilitarian analysis concluded that it is wrong, due in large part to the fact that people are dying and suffering.
One very important point of my thesis is that over time my answers might change—for example from deeming something outright wrong to determining it only somewhat wrong or even the right thing to do. At first I believed utilitarianism to be a deficient theory, largely due to this fact. It was hard to believe that actions could in all
circumstances be right or wrong. As I learned though, it isn’t that the actions themselves change, but rather, as time goes on and consequences become clearer, one’s assessment can become more precise. The ability to cope and adapt and evolve must be a part of our ethical views. As we can see, things like war force this adaptation.
Another element to consider is that the information we have now is not complete. In order to let Americans live their lives as normally as possible, Homeland Security does not allow citizens to know how close they were or are to devastation. This withholding of information is to foster peace of mind and is totally acceptable in utilitarian eyes since it allows us just that. We will likely get the information later and then views may change. We may learn that some conspiracy theories were right and that the Bush administration wanted the war or we may learn that Saddam threatened us repeatedly. Knowledge like this may change the results dramatically, as it should. No one would want a theory that said killing is wrong or right no matter what at all.
The one finding that I am a bit unsure of in retrospect is that Operation Enduring Freedom was a good thing. That is because my information is not as accurate as I would like in terms of other countries and what is happening at the time. I believe that the war on terror could be looked at as a bad thing based on the fact that it did not produce the people responsible, and as far as we know, Bin Laden remains at large. These elements could push the operation into the realm of a bad thing, especially considering the
potential unhappiness of Bin Laden remaining at large. He is considered responsible for the 2004 train bombing in Madrid and could do more.
In the end, the entire response to the 9/11 tragedy has been a learning experience, one that forced us to reconsider certain attitudes and prevention methods. In all, I think
America has done a very good job in developing programs that could provide stable security after some problems have been worked out. Once limits have been put on tools like the PATRIOT Act, they can become invaluable in the war on terror. Having every major intelligence agency communicating with local police officers allows for much better regular law enforcement and serves as protection if we ever are attacked at home again. We can see that Bentham’s explanation of how to measure the results of an action has maintained its importance over the years, with such concepts as intensity (comparing people being jailed vs. people being on “No-Fly” lists) or propinquity (comparing results in different times and places) still being relevant. Utilitarianism provides an invaluable theory, even when it is shown to have some flaws. It is because of this that I feel my thesis correctly applies the strongest available theory for the analyzing the actions of the United States following 9/11.
References
ACLU of Northern California. (2004, April 6). ACLU files first nationwide challenge to “No- Fly” list, saying government list violates passengers’ rights. San Francisco: Author. Retrieved April 20, 2005, from http://www.aclunc.org/911/nfl-classaction.html.
Bennhold, Katrin. (2004, August 6). Europe takes new alerts with grain of salt. New York Times, international section.
Bentham, Jeremy. (1823). Introduction to the principles of morals and legislation (scanned from the 1907 Oxford edition). Austin: University of Texas, Classical Utilitarianism Website. Retrieved May 2, 2005, from,
http://www.la.utexas.edu/research/poltheory/bentham/ipml/ipml.c04.html
Bentham, Jeremy & Mill, John Stuart. (1961). The Utilitarians. New York: Dolphin Books. Carville, James. (2003). Had enough? New York: Simon and Schuster.
CNN. (2005, April 20). Special reports: Iraq: transition to power: Coalition casualties. Atlanta: Cable News Network. Retrieved April 20, 2005, from
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casulaties. (To view this webpage go to www.cnn.com, select “Special Reports and Iraq: Transition of Power” and then “Coalition casualties.”)
Conyers, John. (2005, April 6). PATRIOT Act abuse: New developments in the Brandon Mayfield case. Alexandria, VA: Conyers for Congress. Retrieved April 6, 2005, from
http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000049.htm
Coulter, Ann. (2001, September 14). This is war. Washington, DC: Townhall.com.
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/anncoulter/2001/09/14/160244.html. Electronic Privacy Information Center. (2005). The USA PATRIOT Act. Washington, DC:
Author. Retrieved January 10, 2005, from
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/.
Franken, Al. (2003). Lies and the lying liars who tell them. New York: Penguin Group. FredT. (2004, January 4). FBI Charges laser suspect under PATRIOT Act: Despite
acknowledging not a terrorist act. AboveTopSecret.com. Retrieved January 10, 2004, from http://www.atsnn.com/story/109365.html.
Khan, Omar. (2005, April 16). Screening in need of sense [Electronic version]. Washington Post, p. A15.
Koeller, David. (n.d.). Rachels: Utilitarianism. Chicago: Northpark University. Retrieved March 12, 2005, from
http://campus.northpark.edu/history/Koeller/NPD2000/Rachels.Utilitar.htm. (Cached at
http://64.233.161.104/u/northparkuniversity?q=cache:gRFRszqGzzQJ:campus.northpark. edu/History/Koeller/NPD2000/Rachels.Utilitar.htm+utilitarian&hl=en&ie=UTF-8.) Mautner, Thomas. (1998). The Penguin dictionary of philosophy. New York: Penguin Group.
Retrieved May 1, 2005, from http://www.utilitarianism.com/idealuti.htm.
McCloskey, H. J. (1965). A non-utilitarian approach to punishment. Inquiry, 8, 294-263. (Passage quoted in Koeller, n. d.)
Meyer, Nicholas (Director). (1982). Star trek II: The wrath of Kahn [Motion Picture]. Los Angeles: Paramount.
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. (2004). The 9/11 report. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
O’Reilly, Bill. (2003). Who’s looking out for you? New York: Broadway Books. Parfit, Derek. Reasons and persons. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Pojman, Louis P. (1989). Ethical theory: Classic and contemporary readings. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Rachels, James. (1986). The elements of moral philosophy (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. (Cited passages also appear in Koeller, n.d.)
Schechter, Danny. (2005, August 9). The Politics of Terror Alerts. New York: Globalvision, MediaChannel.org. Retrieved April 2, 2005, from www.newsdissector.org/blog/wp- print.php?p=842
Scheeres, Julia. (2002, October 16). ACLU acts against PATRIOT Act. San Francisco: Wired News. Retrieved May 1, 2005, from
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,55838,00.html
Smart, John Jameison Carswell. (1961). An outline of a system of utilitarian ethics. Victoria, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
Timeline of America’s War on Terror. (2005). Retrieved January 10, 2005, from
http://www.finchfactory.com.
War on Terrorism. (2005). PollingReport.com. Retrieved May 1, 2005, from
World Revolution. (2004, April 30.) AP toll says 1,361 Iraqis killed in April. Seattle: Author. Retrieved April 1, 2005, from http://www.worldrevolution.org/article/1255.