Peace and War

Preface: In the midst of a proper Irish/Catholic upbringing I learned that there were two subjects that were never discussed in polite conversation: religion and politics. Since I have already violated this particular social moray with my “foolish religious talk”, I shall attempt to complete the job with a brief discussion of a political topic. I understand that there are those with whom I will disagree, and this is not an attempt to change anyone’s mind or to attack them in anyway. This is me fulfilling my role as the loyal opposition.

I have for some time been reading and perusing the websites of some of the Christian, peace advocacy organizations with varying degrees of: interest, hope, and concern. I feel compelled at this point to state that I in no way wish to promote violence or armed conflict. That being said I must state that the true peace offered by Christ does mean the absence of conflict, it also is not “peace at any price”. I would direct you fair reader to consider Matthew 10:34-36:

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “ ‘ a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household’

While this is not an open invitation to conflict, it is also not a claim to peace at all costs. We serve a God who has at times demanded his people go to war against their neighbors, even to the point of exterminating these neighbors to prevent his people possibly being corrupted by them. This does not invalidate the peace brought to this world by Christ, but it does alter the tint of the lens in which we see it through. As a Christian, it is conceivable that there would be a circumstance in which we are required to face the world with a bible in one hand and a sword in the other.

This being said…. I would like to relate these thoughts to the world we currently find ourselves in. The world of the year 2004 is a very dangerous place. There is currently a struggle for the soles of most of the world’s religions. Extremism is on the rise among Hindus, Muslims, and even Christians. We are in the midst of a global war on terrorism that is partially of our own making. America has made some costly mistakes in its foreign policy that been the cause of a great deal of the current animosity that it faces. The repression of democracy in Iran during the reign of the Shah; the way we left the people of Afghanistan to fend for themselves after fighting our Cold War enemy the Soviet Union to a standstill; we supplied them with arms…encouraged them to fight our enemy and then left them to rebuild their country: the way we still prop up failing monarchies in the middle east in spite of the call for democracy by their subjects. These failings have fueled the fire of animosity of the Arab world against us. This however does not justify the actions of September 11th 2001.

In my humble opinion our response in Afghanistan was entirely appropriate. My only hope is that we continue to help rebuild this shattered country and not make the same mistake we made the last time we where involved in conflict there. As for Iraq…I myself am a bit dubious of the reasons given for our initial involvement there. The rub is that we did depose a horrible dictator who was killing his own people in droves and was a constant threat to his neighbors. If left to his own devices it is entirely possible that we would have had to fight him again anyway. Does this justify entering into a war under false pretenses not at all? If that turns out to be the case I would be leading the charge for Bush’s head on a platter. This does not however allow us to walk away from this job half finished. If the forces of terror were allowed to gain a foothold in Iraq, and then to gain control of the country we would end up with worse situation than we started with it. Essentially now that we are there, right or wrong, we need to finish the job, we at least owe the Iraqi people that much.

The terrorist groups that are still out there still need to be dealt with. They need to be eliminated. This can be done in several ways. We need to make up for some of the mistakes we have made in the past. We need to support the nations and organizations that wish to promote civilization and peaceful existence. We need to continue to invest in these nations, both in their economies and their infrastructure. By raising the living standards in these countries we will help to eliminate the attraction of terrorist groups to the population. We need to deal with the organizations themselves. These groups pose a threat to civilization as we know.

Historically the concept of “peace at any price” has led to some tragic consequences. The events leading up to World War II are a perfect example. Consider for a moment the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain getting off the plane after the Munich summit before the start of the war proclaiming “peace in our time”. Chamberlain had just sold several of Germany’s neighbors up the river in order to secure peace for the more prominent powers of Europe. This gave Nazi Germany the opportunity to consolidate its power on the continent and greatly emboldened its leader Adolf Hitler. If England had stood up to Germany early on countless lives could have been saved, and the destruction of most of Europe could have been avoided.

This in no way invalidates the ideals of non-violent resistance or civil disobedience. I believe that there is great wisdom in the ideas of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. What I will say is that sometimes non-violent civil disobedience is not the right course of action. What Gandhi did in India was great, and it was perfect for the situation, but if he had attempted the same tactics in Nazi Germany, he would have been sent to concentration camp or just killed outright. Even Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was an ardent pacifist felt compelled to participate in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler, a very violent action to be sure.

My intention here is not to anger, or to try to convince anyone of anything. My intention is merely to share my thoughts and perhaps start or continue a dialogue. So do with my thoughts what you will....I thank you for your time and consideration.