Temporal indiscriminateness: the case of cluster bombs.
This paper argues that the current stock of anti-personnel cluster bombs are temporally indiscriminate, and, therefore, unjust weapons. The paper introduces and explains the idea of temporal indiscriminateness. It argues that to honor non-combatant immunity-in addition to not targeting civilians-one must adequately target combatants. Due to their high dud rate, cluster submunitions fail to target combatants with sufficient temporal accuracy, and, thereby, result in avoidable serious harm to non-combatants. The paper concludes that non-combatant immunity and the principle of discrimination require a moratorium on the use of current cluster munitions.
Cavanaugh
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Department of Philosophy, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117-1080, USA. cavanaught@usfca.edu
D000533:Altruism; D026686:Beneficence; D054042:Bombs / Q000941:ethics*; D034723:Double Effect Principle; D006040:Goals; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D040261:Harm Reduction / Q000941:ethics; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008891:Military Science / Q000941:ethics* / Q000379:methods; D028681:Moral Obligations; D010684:Philosophy; D011287:Prejudice; D012935:Social Justice / Q000941:ethics*; D013997:Time Factors; D014480:United Nations; D014857:Warfare / Q000941:ethics*