Democracy and Norms of War: Locating Moral Responsibility for Atrocity in Iraq

Abstract

Several US military personnel have been accused of committing "atrocities" in Iraq. The dominant assumption is that these were isolated incidents. Further, it is commonly assumed that if these incidents were atrocities, or war crimes, the individuals who perpetrated them, and in some cases their commanders, should be held both legally and morally responsible. Yet the paradigm of individual responsibility does not capture all that is morally meaningful about these incidents. When policies regularly and predictably cause them, even though unintended, atrocity can become systemic. The concept of collective moral responsibility - at the organization, state, and public levels - helps us understand how these acts could occur and what they mean. Systemic atrocity and collective moral responsibility are two useful concepts to look for means to prevent atrocities and to respond to them. © De Boeck Université.