The subject of war has always been interesting to me. My Dad served as a United States Marine, stationed in Okinawa, Japan, between the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. Though he never saw combat, he’s always considered a Marine to be a cut above the Army, Navy and Air Force and will probably insist that Semper Fi be carved into the lid of his casket.
I grew up in the cold war, believing that the Carter administration had left us vulnerable to a potential Soviet attack and being thankful for the arms buildup under Reagan. I remember watching on TV, January 20, 1981, as a senior in high school as the Iran hostages were released just 20 minutes after Reagan’s inauguration, ostensibly as a result of the incoming president’s promise to secure the hostages’ release from Tehran, via the United States military. The biblical doctrine of Just War is one that I still hold believing it to be a valid interpretation.
The struggle that I have had since September 11, 2001, is that although the scripture allows for just war, all wars are fought by humans many of whom are not just and those who’d like to be are not necessarily equipped to lead nations or armies. What should be the position of a Christian who’s country has the biblical basis for either attacking or defending yet the leaders are either not believers or are incompetent? How do we know that when Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” he was not referring to political enemies? Believers in Jesus really should be careful when we cede to political entities and political leaders the right to determine who our enemies are or should be. Did Jesus not shed His blood for Afghan warlords as well as American school kids? One of the more thought provoking lines I’ve heard lately was this: When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” He probably meant don’t kill them. I’ve always thought, based on Ephesians 6, that those who “despised, persecuted and hated” me were not the enemy, but victims of the Enemy.
Recently, I ran across full video of Academy Award winning director Errol Morris’ excellent documentary, The Fog of War. The entire 107 minute movie is based on the actions of Robert McNamara in his role as Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War, including events from his life leading up to that time. It is worth watching even if you have to break it up into several sections.
In a very thought provoking sequence, McNamara ponders the fire bombing of Tokyo in which 100,000 civilians died in a single night (March 9-10, 1945). He insists that General Curtis LeMay’s thinking along with his own planning led to the fire bombing. Approximately 67 Japanese cities were bombed in the same way, many of them more than 50% destroyed along with substantial loss of life. The facts of the raid, though, are not what caught my ear. It was McNamara’s admission that had the U.S. lost the war, that he and LeMay would likely have been prosecuted as war criminals. Quoting McNamara, “He, and I’d say I, were behaving as war criminals.”
Then has asks the unanswered question, “What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”
Indeed.
I thought that, as believers, we were being held to a higher standard, a standard, in fact, that reflects the ethics of the Kingdom of God. I’m not saying that I have answers about Just War or war in general, but I do have many more questions that I once did.
