In exploring the nature of conscience and morality as relates to the decision to kill or not to kill, Soldiers of Conscience does well to outline varying viewpoints on a complicated issue in today’s world. The film, produced and directed by Gary Weimberg and Catherine Ryan, is narrated by Peter Coyote and features several interviews with soldiers with a host of different views on war and killing.
The documentary was made with official permission of the U.S. Army and steers clear from modern policy debates, choosing instead to set up a philosophical discussion. Articulate and realistic, Soldiers of Conscience does well to avoid the standard debates about war and focuses on the bigger picture of whether killing can be justified or reasonably dealt with by human beings.
There are, of course, numerous approaches to the discussion and Weimberg and Ryan’s film does well to venture down most moral pathways.
Some soldiers attempt to rationalize the act of killing in wartime with a variety of mantras, many of which are couched in propaganda. Suggestions of “duty” align themselves with honour and “raising the right hand” in order to provide the rationale to take lives, while others construct more versatile logical reasoning.
The very nature of war is explored by various soldiers, too, with a philosophy-minded individual describing the necessity of warfare in a world where “aggressive people” continue to behave in a manner that requires the defense of the innocent and, as an “unavoidable” consequence, the taking of lives.
Objectors to combat find that they cannot rationalize the taking of lives with mere duty, arguing that they cannot forget the humanity of their “enemies.” This point is driven home by the case of Sgt. Kevin Benderman, who was dishonourably discharged and punished because of an “enhanced sense of humanity” that became “dangerous” to his military service.
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