cover image How Do I Save My Honor? War, Moral Integrity, and Principled Resignation

How Do I Save My Honor? War, Moral Integrity, and Principled Resignation

William F. Felice, . . Rowman & Littlefield, $44.95 (223pp) ISBN 978-0-7425-6666-8

That iconic Bush administration dilemma—how should military or State Department functionaries have registered their opposition to the Iraq War?—is mulled over in this philosophical treatise–cum–antiwar manifesto. Taking Colin Powell as an object lesson, political scientist Felice leans toward “principled resignation” rather than working within government to change policy as the more honorable and effective response for government officials charged with prosecuting a war they thought was wrong. His scholarly backdrop cites just war theory, philosophers from Aristotle to Kant and Thoreau, and his own interview with ethicist Peter Singer, but he relies on case studies of American and British officials and soldiers who resigned, or refused to fight, to carry the argument. Through their rambling statements, the author rehashes a substantive brief against war and its justifications, and hammers home high-minded verities about ordinary citizens’ duty to resist unjust wars. The book seems aimed at a limited audience that is both convinced of the war’s immorality and positioned to derail, not just deplore it. Other readers may find it less than incisive. (July)