Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

The observation that the morality of a given actor's actions exists unrelated to the context in which he commits his acts is itself an 'illegitimate turn of moral logic' or at least many would find it so. No doubt the incineration if countless German and Japanese children in their beds was a war crime even if it violated no actual rules of war codified by some international organization or human rights group but perhaps commissions ought to have been impaneled to levy judgment on the allies at wars end or even during the war itself. But most people have done the moral calculus and concluded that it made a difference which side was doing the civilian bombing and that no such investigations need be conducted or if they are that no penalties be attached. While the philosopher finds it strange that many resist the calls to loudly condemn Israel's attempts at self defense as war crimes even when innocents are killed may not have anything to do with logic moral or otherwise. Then again, I'm biased.