Attaking Poison Gas
A relevant passage here is in Thucydides: The Melian Dialogue. Here is the first recording of the idea that might makes right. it is an extreme case and in some ways not parallel to the current situation, but it it frighteningly articulate. In it, the Athenians, at the top of their game, tell the city of Melos that it wants tribute and vassalage and that if Melos doesn't provide the same, Athens will invade and destroy them. And that's what they did, arguing that "justice" was only operable when equal dealt with equal and not when the stronger dealt with the weaker. Not pretty. Melos argued from a moral basis, and Athens simply overruled it.My own view is that might makes right is descriptively true but morally repulsive. If we generalize, with this principle holding steady, I can imagine situation after situation in which we would be revolted by its application. And so, being a Kantian, I insist that what might work in this situation could never ever be expanded into a general rule commanding all situations--or even a few, for that matter.Do we love China after the rape of Tibet? How would we view things if North Korea decided to take over South Korea. We would cry "Aggression, Aggression" and attempt to bomb the former back to the stone age. In other words, our moral stance as a nation abhors Aggression. So how can we turn around and practice it?
The use of gas is hideous. Of course it should be stopped. But I don't think that we should violate a general and basic international law in order to enforce a much more specific one. In the course of time, if we are cleverly diplomatic, the U.N. will develop the ability to deal with such situations. Right now I fault Putin far more than anyone other than Assad.