The ethics of violence and modern, technological warfare

The Pope’s recent suggestion at a meeting with staff from the Italian national airline that aerial bombardment “should have been banned forever” might sound detached from the realities of modern warfare. In a world of precision-guided munitions and drone warfare, the idea of outlawing attacks from the skies appears implausible.
Yet Leo’s intervention, delivered as the United States and Israel’s confrontation with Iran deepens, is more nuanced than perhaps it first appears. At its heart, it exposes the widening gap between how modern militaries (and much of the media) talk about war and how civilians experience it.

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