US Plane in the Persian Gulf: August, 2014. (EPA via BBC)
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an entry about calling for peace in dark times. I talked about anti-Muslim sentiment and especially how it tends to surface around the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. I also discussed the role of peacemaker, the role that Jesus would have us take on. Toward the end I talked a little about the current situation with ISIS and what's going on there.
Well, as you've most likely noticed in the last 24 hours, things have really ramped up on this front. Yesterday the US and several other countries undertook airstrikes in Syria that were targeted at ISIS, among others. This is a significant escalation in the conflict, and as I listened to the news this afternoon I heard more than one reporter or pundit call it a "new war" with varying degrees of giddyness.
So this brings me to an issue that I really struggle with: Being anti-violence and anti-war is well and good, but what do you do when some people are trying to hurt others and seemingly won't respond to anything else but force and violence being used against them? Does Jesus really wish for us to sit back and not do anything about it? It's not just a question for religious folks either. I know plenty of atheist/agnostic folks who who share my opinions on war and violence, yet none of them have ever given me a way to resolve this issue either.
Should we let ISIS continue to commit the atrocities that they're committing? Should we just back off and hope that at some point they (and other groups) will just leave us alone? The pragmatic answer is "of course not," but how do you reconcile this with the classical teachings of Jesus concerning peace and non violence? How do you deal with this even if you're a totally secular person who just tries to live by the phrase: "Do no harm?"
The first thing that probably pops into your head if you've given this some thought is Just War Theology. It's not just for theologians either, you'll see it taught in ethics classes as "Just War Theory." You even see it in the Geneva convention. The theory has two parts. The first deals with justice in going to war, and the second deals with justice during of the conduct of war.
I'm not going to go into a treatise on it here. There's plenty of accessible info on the internet about it. This page gives a quick overview for those who are really interested in the ethical underpinnings. Basically it states that a war can only justly be waged to protect life, that it must be proportional to the issue at hand, that it must be done with proper authority, and it must be a last resort.
I think most regular folks would have no issue seeing the current conflict with ISIS as being sanctioned under Just War Theory. After all, these guys are forcing religious conversions, holding mass executions of innocent people, and decapitating people on camera just for starters. It seems like we should all be fine with mopping these guys up and ridding the world of their influence.
So why can't I bring myself to whole-heartedly support this? Why is it even a question in my mind?
First I guess it's because I'm not so sure it will work. I have a hard time believing that a few thousand bombs and some partially trained Syrian rebel forces are gonna sort this out. I'm really afraid that we're going to end up sending in American troops, men and women from who we've asked so much of already. I know that the politicians say this isn't going to happen, but politicians lie and circumstances change. I also know that many if not most of our soldiers would go in a heartbeat. It's what they signed on for. I respect that immensely, and it's that respect that makes me think we need to be careful about how we use these men and women. I really don't want more families to be experiencing the pain of a lost loved one in this way.
Second: let's assume it does work. Let's assume that we manage to root out ISIS and their cohorts. What happens next? We screwed this up big time in Iraq, and it hasn't gone much better in Afghanistan. We create a power vacuum that must be filled. Either we stay and fill it ourselves (which the locals aren't going to go for) or we let it go and see what happens. Either way, I have a hard time seeing this turning out to be anything other than a game of terrorist Whack-a-Mole. We put one group down and another pops up. Is that the best we can hope for? I don't know.
The other thing is my belief that violence breeds violence. If you watch the news magazine show "Vice," you saw them do a piece on Afghanistan and continued US operations there, specifically drone attacks. They talked to a number of people both in Afghanistan and the US that said flat out said that every time we drop a bomb we create at least one new terrorist. It's seen as naked American aggression. These people don't view the situation the same way we do. Maybe they don't agree with the terrorists, but what do they think when a bomb accidentally kills some women or kids? What do they think when they're left to live in the rubble after the bombs are done falling? That's when violence recycles. What do we do about that? How do we win the hearts and minds so to speak?
I don't have the answers to any of this. As much as I want to advocate for peace, what do we do in this situation? It isn't just an ethical or esoteric dilemma. People are dying, and the violence keeps on recycling. I sat and watched the news coverage of this last night and was totally torn in two on the subject.
As I mentioned in my previous entry, the best thing that I can come up with is hoping and praying that in the end a solution is found that does the least amount violence to the fewest number of people. It's the best way for me to feel comfortable with it, but it doesn't do much about the actual problem. Unfortunately, it's a problem that's not going away anytime soon. I just hope a solution can be found that's something besides "perpetual war." At any rate, I hope that you'll join me in the coming days to pray for our leaders, our soldiers, the innocent people in the crossfire, and even the people we're fighting against that their hearts might be softened.
Though admittedly, that's a long shot.
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