What Is Philosophical Ethics?
The bombers alone provide the means of victory. Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England, referring to the war against Nazi Germany, 1940. Churchill confronted one of modern historys most anguishing moral dilemmas. He faced what he regarded as the prospect of an immeasurable evil, the victory of Nazi Germany over Britain and other Allied powers in World War II. He judged that the only way to stop Hitler and the Nazis was to use Britains Bomber Command with the purpose of killing a large number of ordinary citizens in German cities. The bombings, he concluded, would demoralize the Nazis and greatly increase the chance of defeating them in the war. Some British officials opposed Churchills decision and argued that British air attacks should aim only at military targets, not civilians. They insisted that they were fighting against Hitlers Nazi morality, and they did not want to imitate him by killing innocent people. They argued that attacking civilian targets is always wrong, even in
