Now I've been reading here on Newsvine and it has come to my attention that there are a few people here that think that war is a sickness that man can be cured of. That it is a science that can be practiced with predictable results. The particular case are those saying that it was wrong for us to kill someone we believed to be our enemy even though it killed 4 others and injured 8 more in the process.
To them I ask "When did effectiveness cease to be a virtue and success become a vice?" It is almost as though some want us to be ashamed when we kill anyone that might not be our enemy in pursuit of the primary goal which is to knock our enemies out. One even suggested that I being a Christian and also being satisfied that we had killed our target were not compatible.
Jesus Christ was Jewish. Christianity is Judaism that recognizes Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Judaism has too many military men to count: Moses, Joshua, and David just to name three. They were prolific killers of their enemies and they were favored by God. Jesus also said to obey the laws of your country and render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. If your government needs to kill its enemies to continue to protect the integrity of your country, that is life. Jesus allowed himself to be crucified because he knew what his destiny was; that is why he withheld his power. He was serving his kingdom, God's kingdom, by doing what it had commanded. I am not for the indiscriminate killing of people that are not our enemies, but there is a price for every action. Sometimes, like today, the price of getting to your enemy is that you unintentionally kill others. Therefore, baseline Christian conduct is to support your government and obey its laws but optimum Christian conduct is to do the best you can to eliminate your enemies while being better than your predecessors when it comes to collateral damage.
Thomas Hobbes had a saying that I think is rather valuable here. He said that government's aim was to have men "be sociable with those that would be sociable, and formidable with those that would not." Al Qaeda will not be sociable. The Taliban will not be sociable. Hence, we must be formidable to them. They have used young boys (as young as 8) and the mentally handicapped as unwitting suicide bombers. Are we to just stand back and pliantly die? Once we do should we stand back and pliantly die some more as they find every young boy and handicapped person and strap them with bombs? Standing back and being compliant with your enemies only encourages them to go further. My grandpa's way of saying it is "A man will be as mean as you will let him be." The same for Al Qaeda. They will be as cruel, torturous and inhumane as we will let them be and the longer we shy away from confronting them directly the worse we make it on ourselves and on the poor people being subjected to Al Qaeda's behavior. There have been wars and will be wars all down throughout time. Only the nations not too timid to fight them will survive.
