WAR!

War, huh, yeah

What is it good for?

 Canada sits on the brink of committing our men and women in uniform to flying combat missions over Iraq to battle the Al-Qaeda Separatists (QSIS) (you may have heard them called Islamic State or some variant. I won’t call them that because they aren’t a state and much more importantly there is absolutely nothing Islamic about what they are doing) As our advance teams are already setting up and the pilots of the RCAF are getting ready to join their counterparts from the US, UK and others in a bombing campaign against QSIS I am compelled to ask the question posed by Edwin Starr in his 1970 hit protest song War, what is it good for?

 First of all it is important for all of us to remember a few key facts. We (Western Powers) have an absolutely abysmal record with intervention in the Middle East. The only reason QSIS has a foothold in Iraq to begin with is because of the power vacuum created by the last US led intervention in the country. Of course, one would be remiss to forget that before the United States removed Hussein they supplied him with weapons and equipment to fight against Iran in the 1980s. Beyond Iraq, we in the west have continued the pattern of partnering with the lesser-evil-de-jour in the region only to label them public enemy #1 a little while later (remember that the US financed and supplied the Mujahideen with whom a younger Osama bin-Laden allegedly trained and fought). Beyond our track record of failures in the region it’s also worth noting that not many hearts and minds are really being won by dropping bombs on other countries. The idea that the West is the Great Satan isn’t hard to sell when the bombs falling on your local bazaar all have “Made in the USA” stamped on them.

 At the end of the day I have to come to the same conclusion as Edwin Starr – War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Yes, what’s happening in QSIS controlled territories is atrocious. Without a doubt the lives of innocent people would be better if they no longer had any power – but I simply don’t believe that dropping our bombs on them is going to result in any loss of power for them. If anything I think it could strengthen their resolve and harden an already skeptical people against any good work we might be able to do in the future.

 All that said, even if I did believe that military intervention would serve a practical foreign policy end – I would still find myself unable to support it, because as a follower of Jesus I cannot support the dropping of bombs on anyone, ever. Just like the song says,

 They say we must fight to keep our freedom

But Lord knows there’s got to be a better way

Now I’m not here to say that there’s never a time to stand firm. It’s clear that there are countless situations in the world where the last thing a follower of Jesus should do is sit down and be quiet. There is also no doubt in my mind that this is one of them! But can a follower of the one who said “he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword” make the mistake of conflating the concepts of action and violence? There is a clear message in the scriptures, from the Psalms, to the Prophets, to the New Testament and Jesus himself – that violence and war are not the solutions to our problems. The Apostles Peter and Paul both wrote that the Christian should not repay evil with evil, the Psalmist penned the words “turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it” and in the same narrative where Jesus said that those who live by the sword shall die by it – he also chided his disciple reminding him that if violence had been his plan then he would have commanded legions of angels to protect him.

Non-violence is an option – but it’s not an easy one.

The problem with the non-violent solution is twofold. On the one hand, it is slow and in the short term that means more people will die at the hands of a great evil. On the other hand in addition to taking longer it requires a level of investment and involvement much more complex than making bombs and dropping them all across an already war-scarred region. Stability, democracy, liberty and peace are not ends achieved overnight. If we started with a comprehensive non-violent plan today it would be a miracle to see anything approaching a worthy goal in the foreseeable future. It certainly won’t be a legacy that any President or Prime Minister will be able to claim in his or her own lifetime.

If, however, we we’re going to try and be genuine peacemakers we’re going to need to repent of our habit of shipping bombs around the globe and invest in shipping books. Education, not military intervention is how we will topple the totalitarians. We need to teach the children of the world to read, to exchange ideas and be civil in their disagreements. A very twisted heresy is one of QSIS’s driving forces, and in Islam just like in Christianity the way to overcome fanaticism is to read, to study, to pray and to discuss. The lies QSIS preaches need to be countered with an authentic expression of the true Muslim faith. The danger of their dark path needs to be exposed with the light of logic, critical thinking and knowledge. In addition to education, if we in the west are to involve ourselves in true peacemaking we need to encourage the people of Iraq and similar countries to develop the social and economic infrastructure that will give them a chance at a happy, healthy and prosperous life. We’ve carried out decades of destruction and now there is a lot of rebuilding to be done.

War, what is it good for? Absolutely Nothing!

Peace is my prayer today.

 

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. – Jesus