I don’t think war is noble but I am also not convinced there is anything so wrong about it in the current situation.
Saddam is a threat to us, mistreats his own people, de-stabilizes the region, has lots of oil.
All good reasons to attack. You may question some of those reason, such as whether or not he is a ?real? threat and I think it is very unclear. But the potential threat is worth preventing.
Now the downside is some innocent people will suffer. That is also true if there is no war (innocent people suffer in Iraq right now). Plus we will be hated by parts of the world community (also, this is currently true, although this is the biggest downside and is a whole area that need to be addressed in this crisis and in many other areas by the American leadership).
The upside seems greater than the downside. Saddam is out, some new form of government is in (this may be risky but again worth it), oil supplies are opened.
You may say in response to my comments that war would often be justified under my rationale. You could be correct. However, in many other situations there are more diplomatic options that just do not exist in this case ? years of dealing with this situation have proven otherwise. But generally, war may be justified in other situations as well.
What happened to all the realist (in the political science sense of the term)? Do citizens/Christians feel good about being anti-war? Is that enough justification?
I am serious, I think every person and nation deserves to be treated justly but maybe the best path to this is by some more realism insert on the world scene.
War is hell (apparently from what people say, although I think it most of us think war movies are cool so we really do not know what the hell we are talking about) but it may be a reality of this life.
We do not have to go to war, but then we have to live with the current situation and from my limited understanding I think that is not an option. We can try to avoid war but I suggest that keeping the use of force as an option is an important card in the deck toward avoiding war. I think we should play that card in this situation and be willing to bear the risks and learn from it.
People will likely die. That is evil, bad, sucks. But that is life (or at least the end of it). I say we need to stop being such politically correct wimps and be more realistic hawks.
What do you think? If you disagree and think realism is never a Christian option please explain why (with something more convincing than God loves peace because peace is the goal of everyone, including the hardcore realist).
dddroog
Jan 29 2003
12:22 pm
I don’t think war is noble but I am also not convinced there is anything so wrong about it in the current situation.
Saddam is a threat to us, mistreats his own people, de-stabilizes the region, has lots of oil.
All good reasons to attack. You may question some of those reason, such as whether or not he is a ?real? threat and I think it is very unclear. But the potential threat is worth preventing.
Now the downside is some innocent people will suffer. That is also true if there is no war (innocent people suffer in Iraq right now). Plus we will be hated by parts of the world community (also, this is currently true, although this is the biggest downside and is a whole area that need to be addressed in this crisis and in many other areas by the American leadership).
The upside seems greater than the downside. Saddam is out, some new form of government is in (this may be risky but again worth it), oil supplies are opened.
You may say in response to my comments that war would often be justified under my rationale. You could be correct. However, in many other situations there are more diplomatic options that just do not exist in this case ? years of dealing with this situation have proven otherwise. But generally, war may be justified in other situations as well.
What happened to all the realist (in the political science sense of the term)? Do citizens/Christians feel good about being anti-war? Is that enough justification?
I am serious, I think every person and nation deserves to be treated justly but maybe the best path to this is by some more realism insert on the world scene.
War is hell (apparently from what people say, although I think it most of us think war movies are cool so we really do not know what the hell we are talking about) but it may be a reality of this life.
We do not have to go to war, but then we have to live with the current situation and from my limited understanding I think that is not an option. We can try to avoid war but I suggest that keeping the use of force as an option is an important card in the deck toward avoiding war. I think we should play that card in this situation and be willing to bear the risks and learn from it.
People will likely die. That is evil, bad, sucks. But that is life (or at least the end of it). I say we need to stop being such politically correct wimps and be more realistic hawks.
What do you think? If you disagree and think realism is never a Christian option please explain why (with something more convincing than God loves peace because peace is the goal of everyone, including the hardcore realist).