Hare - Lovalty and Obedience

As for the instance where charges were left for the destruction of the Indonesian ship, I feel that the ship could have been left alone as it was. It was true that the ship was not sinking, but it certainly wasn't going to be going anywhere either. One would have to prove that the ship would still be able to carry out the function of supplying the Japanese in order to justify it's destruction. Also, if that was the case, then they should have insured that all of the survivors were to make it off safely.

I think it sucks that something can be morally right, but legally wrong. I feel that we should not be able to convict someone in legal terms for doing something that is morally correct. That solider should not be held at trial because he decided that it would be wrong to gun down those surrendering German soldiers.

I can see where there are two different kinds of moral thinking in the virtues of a good solider and the virtues of a good person. The problem is that the two rarely coincide in situations that morality is questioned. What I find hard to debate as Hare somewhat mentions here is that sometimes - usually in the case of the Germans and Japanese of WWII - they are forced to do immoral things because if they don't follow orders they will be shot. That is a very abstract and difficult concept for me to decide upon. You can't ask someone to be kill voluntarily, but it is also unjustifiable that many could be killed if one doesn't sacrifice oneself. The questions also arises that perhaps the many will be killed either way. That is, that the solider that doesn't want to commit the unjust act could be killed and then the others would be killed as well. Clearly, the solider would then have no moral responsibility, but a greater evil would have been committed.

Is loyalty truly a virtue? I see it as a blinding force at times especially in the situation that we have here. Certainly a blind loyalty which causes the death of innocent people doesn't sound like much of a principle. It is true that right moral actions don't ever come easy.