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Created: April 11, 2003
Latest Update: April 11, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

War as Crime

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, April 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

On Thursday, April 10, 2003, Kim Williams wrote:

Hi, jeanne. i was just sitting here thinking about the war, and i came to the concusion that war is a crime, because many innocent people die. I do not feel that it is right that the United States plays by the rules and the enemy breaks the rules. Also it is really hard when many soilders do not return home to their families. I guess i can say i was lucky because my brother was over in Irag for months, however, he retiredand returned home safe. God bless us.
Kim Williams

On Friday, April 11, 2003, jeanne responded: Kim, I'm glad you wrote.

Your brief story gives me lots to work with, in terms of conceptual linking and turning our thoughts into academic pieces. You need to develop paragraphs. Now, I know that you've heard that before, but let's try to rewrite this piece together. Instead of each sentence making up part of a paragraph, each of your sentences introduces a new topic. Look:

1. Hi, jeanne. i was just sitting here thinking about the war

2. and i came to the concusion that war is a crime, because many inocent people die.

3. I do not feel that it is right that the United States plays by the rules and the enemy breaks the rules.

4. Also it is really hard when many soilders do not return home to their families.

5. I guess i can say i was lucky because my brother was over in Irag for months, however, he retiredand returned home safe.

6. God bless us.

Now, instead of stringing these one-sentence "paragraphs" together, let's see if we can turn this into a short essay submission.

1. Hi, jeanne. i was just sitting here thinking about the war. it's hard not to do that because signs of the war are all around us. i was wondering why we even have wars. we have learned in sociology that there are often many perspectives we never think of. we just do things because they've always been done that way. maybe there's another way to approach real issues.

2. while i was thinking about alternatives to war, i came to the conclusion that war is a crime, because many innocent people die. I looked up crime in the online dictionary:

   Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

   They don't give the killing of innocent people as a crime definition, but the do say that "a grave offense especially against morality." Killing is a grave offense, and killing innocent people is wrong under our moral code. But then the government says that in war you can kill. Not only can you kill; you must kill. But if killing someone is a crime, how does it become not a crime. Wasn't that part of the problem in the Nuremburg trials, when WWII soldiers claimed they were just doing what they were told to do?