Is War Always a Defeat?
A spectacularly good, articulate post on the issue. This excerpt gives the tone:
This does not mean I am against every conceivable war. This does not mean that I would not participate in any war. But it does mean that any war I thought was just, any war that I judged to be morally good because it was morally the only option I could discern with the best of my limited abilities, would still be a disaster, a failure that I would feel to the core. As Pope John Paul II recently wrote:War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity.
I cannot think of anything to add. But to make it unqualifiedly clear I do add what I have said in several places--"War is always a defeat for humanity; but sometimes to escape annhilation, we must accept defeat." There is nothing good about war except its ending--but there are things far worse than war loose in the world today and the only way to see them end may be to engage in warfare. It is truly, deeply sad. So I'm not an unqualified pacifist, nor do I regard myself as a coward, but I must add my voice to that of the blogmaster at Minute Particulars.
