David D Friedman wrote a very interesting blog post on this topic which significantly influenced my thinking, arguing that if you reject the validity of human shields, then you should also accept the possible acceptability (in sufficiently dire circumstances) of conscription:
The bad guy grabs a convenient bystander, pulls out a gun, points it at you, and starts shooting with the bystander held in front of him. If you shoot back you might kill the innocent shield. Are you entitled to do it?
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If your response to the human shield problem is that killing an innocent shield violates the victim’s rights so you should never do it, you are at the mercy of any opponent willing to follow the Hamas strategy or any serious nuclear power.
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The alternative is that you have a right to defend yourself. If the only way of defending yourself violates the rights of other people, you are still entitled to do it; your violation of their rights is the fault of the attacker you are defending against. That seems the obvious position, short of pacifism, for a libertarian to take.
But …
Arguably, defending against aggressive neighbors requires taxes. Collecting taxes violates the rights of the taxpayers but if you are entitled to kill innocent Palestinians or Russians when doing so is necessary to defend your rights, surely you are also entitled to violate the rights of Americans to some of their money.
There are good arguments against a military draft under most circumstances but imagine a war so dangerous that no wage would be high enough to recruit enough volunteers to keep the enemy from conquering you. You wouldn’t want to violate the rights of people by drafting them, but if it is the only way of defending your rights …
Similarly, you argue that (according to normal ethics) killing people is forbidden normally, but encouraged during war. But neither seems true to me: killing is permitted to normal people if necessary in self defense or the defense of others, and killing in war is only permitted if the war is just—ie a war of national defense or the defense of others.
David D Friedman wrote a very interesting blog post on this topic which significantly influenced my thinking, arguing that if you reject the validity of human shields, then you should also accept the possible acceptability (in sufficiently dire circumstances) of conscription:
Similarly, you argue that (according to normal ethics) killing people is forbidden normally, but encouraged during war. But neither seems true to me: killing is permitted to normal people if necessary in self defense or the defense of others, and killing in war is only permitted if the war is just—ie a war of national defense or the defense of others.