In the Soldiers of conscience documentary, Ryan and Weimberg talk about soldiers at war in Iraq. The soldiers are fighting with their conscience about the morality of killing fellow human beings. They are unwilling to kill because of the mental and emotional burdens that will follow up. When the soldiers are trained about killing during war, they study to make the decision fast without considering the actual moral act of killing a human being. Later at war it becomes malevolent deciding to kill.
A military regulation (crystallization of conscience) allows the soldiers to apply for conscientious objector status. Those who have successfully got the status and returned to the U.S. have publicly refused to go back to Iraq because of the conscience burden. Soldiers who are ready to kill and have actually killed argue that going to war was what they are to do as soldiers. The point here is whether a soldier has killed or not; they did so because it is their duty and almost every soldier bears the burden of conscience the rest of their life after doing it.
The human nature or cognitive theory is a descriptive study on human behavior. It is defined as the mental process of gaining knowledge through thought and experience hence the behavioral pattern of a person. It points out that a person’s traits are mainly shaped by culture, environment, lifestyle and habitat of a person.
Therefore, from this theory a person is expected to function within his environment. It justifies the soldiers’ act of killing to be linked to the war environment, training and experience irrespective of whether right or wrong. However, there is an absolute standard following a belief, which determines the pattern of behavior. The soldiers viewed as human beings, the standard is their human nature which perceives killing as evil. From the Weimberg documentary, a research has revealed that soldiers from war have suffered mental health complication as well as post-traumatic stress. This is because of functioning within a dysfunction regarding their nature as human beings as opposed to the environment and experience as soldiers.
According to Robin J. Crews, the phrase ‘images of truth’ means the reality of peace as an absence of war and other manifestations of violence. It must constitute positive essentials like justice, human rights, equality and well-being. This includes the presence of peace-promoting structures.
The fundamental value of peace studies is peace. Peace studies involve a vibrant connection between theory and practice which reveals significant issues for peace studies. Such significant issues are the tension between theoretical scopes and engagement with present issues of war and armed conflict.
At theory level, there are two issues: the underdevelopment of peace theory and the normative or ethical dimension of peace studies. Theoretical level deals with concepts of peace, that is, positive and negative. The concepts attach war, armed conflict and political violence with the social situation which include poverty and inequality in appreciating different elements of peace.
The normative or ethical dimension looks into human action and the probability of social change. Other than being a weakness, it can have a say in strengthening through attending to constituent essentials of social and political change. Negative concept of peace is characterized by vicious social and political situation. Positive concept of peace on the other hand is attributed to the existence of constructive social and political situation like justice, human rights, equality and well-being. Therefore peace is not simply the lack of negative tension, armed conflict or war but the presence of a positive force, good-will and brotherhood.
The development of peace studies needs intensification of theoretical and conceptual outline and ensuring that it is relevant to particular problems of peace.
Works Cited
Crews, Robin J. Higher Education Service-Learning Peace and Social. Westport, Conn: Oryx Press, 2002. Print.
Ryan, Catherine, and Gary Weimberg. "soldiers of conscience." (2008): Web.
Wilson, Edward O. Human Nature. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. Print.
