A Refutation of the Necessity of War

This is a topic that's been bugging me for awhile, but I did not want to tackle it until I had sufficiently explored the topic. After much contemplation and meditation, I have come to the following conclusion:

Any argument that supports the necessity of war is groundless and infinitely destructive to any and all efforts towards Peace in the world today.

You cannot fight fire with fire, evil begets evil, make love not war, etc... You could go on for hours pulling out all the spiritual and peace-inspired platitudes. People love them, they feel inspired by them, they are moved by them. Religious folks spout them and spiritual folks wear them on their sleeves. They are idealistic thoughts that are part of a grander movement dreamt, created and activated by brave and courageous people.

But they are all flawed. Peace is not going to happen overnight. It will not be inspired by any one person or result from some calamatous event that momentarily pulled a people together.

Peace is a change that must occur within ones heart and soul, it is a shifting of ones notions and understandings, of the basics of how an individual interacts with the world at large and the other people one shares it with. Peace is every step. Any movement towards a lasting world peace must happen one individual at a time. There is no other way.

But there are still people that argue that war is necessary in certain circumstances. These are good people, loving people. But this notion this is grossly false. Violence and death are not answers. Ever. Period.

So now your thinking of all the extreme examples you can think of. What if a people is being persecuted and hunted down to extinction? What if there human rights are being abused? What if they are murduring babies? And so and so on. Look at Iraq. Did armed conflict work there? How about Afghanistan? Vietnam? Korea? Shall I go on? When are we going to learn from our mistakes as a human race? And when are people going to see that history of mistakes and start holding their governments accountable, rather than swallowing the propaganda sprayed across their TV screens hook, line and sinker?

I know of a few individuals, brothers of mine in the Gnostic tradition, who will argue the necessity of war. As prospective priests in a tradition founded upon the teachings of Jesus, I am at a loss to understand how they are able to justify this obvious hypocrisy. One of Jesus' most famous quotes in the one that tells us that when our enemy strikes our cheek, that we should turn and offer him the other. How as ambassador's of a tradition that expounds harmony, peace, love and enlightenment possibly explain away or justify the harbouring of such violent notions of justifiable war? How damaging would a priest that teaches such a notion to spiritual travellers in their care be? I have and do challenge these brothers to contemplate and meditate on this misheld notions. The idea of Jesus now or then, supporting justifiable war is laughable. So how can we as would-be priests in a Christian tradition support it? It's simple. We can't.

So where does this idea of justifiable killing and violence come from? I would posit that it derives directly from our western us vs. them, either/or worldview. When we view a conflict, say the recent Hezbollah vs. Israeli war, westerners tend to choose sides. Since both sides believe that they are in the right, it is up to us to view the facts and decide who is on the side of justification. The problem is that unless you are wearing blinders or are just being willfully ignorant of the circumstances, any reasonable human being cannot say that either one is right, nor can they definitively say that either side was wrong. I'm not going to get into the details here, but suffice it to say that this winner/loser worldview is not going to get us anywhere. It is not either/or, it is both/and. Boths sides were right and wrong within the precepts of this faulty and destructive worldview.

So where does the western viewpoint take us? It takes us down the path of choosing a side and seeing through the necessary measures to ensure a victory or a satisfactory resolution. Isn't it George W. who keeps saying "we have to stay the course"? Does this work? Perhaps for politicians and leaders and perhaps even for the viewers who are safe and snug at home in the living room watching horribly biased news programs on the 52" Plasma TV they bought at Best Buy. Care to ask the people whose homes are being destroyed and loved one are being killed? Do you think they give a crap who's right or wrong? Nope, you can bet your ass they only care about getting the bombs to stop falling. They don't have the luxury of caring about right or wrong. They can only see life or death. It is up to us to us to live this suffering with them through our compassion. We are all one, what happens to the least of us, happens to all of us.

There are peaceful solutions to any conflict. Ghandi showed us this, amongst others. And as Jesus goes on to say, if a someone asks for your shirt, give them your coat. If all that matters is the welfare of every human the Earth, then giving over a few hundred acres of land you don't really "own" to save them the pain and suffering of war is a reasonable, no...a necessary step. Israel took land given to them by the British that was not theirs in the first place. Britians imperialistic ambitions were misplaced and caused a great deal of suffering. The arming of many sides by the US has deepened the problem. And so on and so on. The situations are complicated, the history twisted and mired in hate, prejudice and self-interest. None of it matters, the past is an illusion, it only exists in our minds. All we have is NOW, and we need to start choosing the course of peace regardless of what it means to our past. The lives of innocents demands no less.

But then, you are thinking, you are just giving into their unreasonable demands! Where would that lead, you say! It is a difficult thing to see, all but impossible unless we begin to change our world view. The Earth is our home and human beings are one people. We will never know peace until we begin to erase the lines of race and country. What do borders matter when compared to the health and happiness of each individual? Sure armed agressors should be opposed, but sending in a bunch of our guys with bigger guns has proven time and time again not to be the answer. There are other ways, and we as individuals must have the courage and the insight and the conviction to choose them, and to demand that our countries leaders choose them as well. Rather than allowing politicians to lead us, we must guide them in choosing what we want and we need to make these wants clear. They are not kings and queens, they are not omnipotent gods. They are people like you and me, and they make mistakes you can be sure, and are not doing much if anything altruistically. You can bet every decision is made with a healthy does of self-interest.

But all of it must start within the individual heart. Peace is every step. It is every heart that turns towards love over hate, joy over right, compassion over ownership. Take a look at your views. Are they valid? Are they yours, or are they just what you have been taught? Are they a product of your countries political propoganda or are they convictions you hold tightly in your heart? And will they begin to create a world that you would want for your children and your grand-children?

I know where I stand. Where do you?