War...War...What Is It Good For?

In August of 1961, my family had just landed in Germany, as my father was assigned to a battalion command outside of Frankfurt.  A few days later, my father was suddenly absent.  Almost overnight, the Berlin Wall had been sloppily erected but effectively separating East and West Germany, bride and groom, mother and son, and friends and relatives. It was only decades later that my mom disclosed that my father had informed her that he had to leave and may not be back.  I can only imagine what went thorough her mind with five children in a two room hotel (temporary “quarters”) contemplating navigating our evacuation.  Then for four years, daily, even children knew the Wall horrors, including one classmate describing seeing a wounded man, who attempted escape, on the wall left to die while witnesses threw him bandages and food.  Returning to the United States, incredulously, this barbaric barrier was rarely noticed.  

 
Since my Cold War Army dependent childhood, sixty years later, I remain frustrated by so many Americans who remain ignorant or indifferent to the plight of millions of others around the world who suffer cruelly under truly autocratic regimes or the daily occurrence of war and death by tyrants.  Case in point is Israel.  If I was a Jew waking up in Israel on June 22, inside an often occupied shelter, I would have felt an enormous weight lifted from my psyche.  It would not be a complete eradication of fear, but at least one major weapon looming over my and my family’s very existence, an Iranian nuclear weapon, had been bunker bombed. 

 
As a Catholic waking up in America on June 22, under the comfortable covers of my own home devoid of even pesky mosquitoes, I felt joyful for Jews in the Middle East.  Like an Israeli Jew, I am not so naive as to think this is the end all to conflicts there, and Iran is pouring on the threats.  

 
Still, this had been an ongoing source of terror in that region for decades.  More pointedly, creation has known war since Lucifer rebelled against God; the human race has battled since Cain’s murderous aggression.   Jesus Christ who advised us to “turn the other cheek,”  also forewarned, and to future generations,  that his earthly sojourn was not an end to physical combat:  “You will hear of wars and reports of war; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end.” (Matthew 24:6).

 
Of course, I agree we must seek peace and detest war.  Incredibly irritating and false are the accusations of so called peace demonstrators that the mere acknowledgment of justified defense somehow negates the desire for unarmed resolutions.  However, the difference between protestors cushioned against the wretchedness of war and those who have witnessed the cruelties of tyrants first hand or up close is that the latter understand the limits of negotiation and signs of false peace.   

 
The mind and soul set needed for today’s war challenge is both the experience and the wisdom of the Catholic Church.  Cardinal virtue in action can best discern and advise calm pro activism weighed against responsible responsiveness, to minimize loss of life and property, not to mention respecting the individual dignity of anyone threatened by war.  

 
The Church, along with its Church Fathers and many Saints and holy ones, have contributed to this debate for 2,000 years.  Succinctly, reasoning about war is encapsulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).   

The CCC provides a timeless baseline in determining our Christian duty to avoid war but also acknowledging just war.  From “Safeguarding Peace” (2302-2306) through “Avoiding War” (2307-2317), the conscientious Catholic can form faithful perspectives and ways to communicate with neighbors, co workers, government representatives, and fellow parishioners.  

 
“Safeguarding Peace” emphasizes the Commandment, “You should not kill.”  Peace of soul through prayer, fasting, and charity can ward off anger, the kindling for vengeful murder.  However, “Peace is not merely the absence of war.. of simply maintaining a balance power between adversaries,  but entails safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, and respect for the dignity of persons and peoples…”. Peace then, “is the tranquility of order,” the “work of justice and the effect of charity.” (2304) 

 
Furthermore, all citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war. (2308).  However, “as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self defense, once all peace efforts have failed.  (Italics mine)

 
Four conditions for such are outlined in CCC 2309:  One, the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community must be lasting, grave, and certain. Two, all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective.  Three, there must be serious prospects of success.  Four, the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.  

 
I would argue that the dropping of the bunker bombs successfully satisfies all four conditions for proper defense measures.

 
Iran has been an avowed enemy of numerous, otherwise peaceful, countries for decades, even determined to end Israel and exterminate all Jews; this anti-Christian bully also “downs”  the satanic United States.  It has armed or funded numerous guerrilla type terrorist groups to wreak havoc globally.  Such attacks or threats of attacks have been lasting, grave, and by their own proclamations, certain.

 
To the second condition, numerous efforts have been made since the United Nations founding of Israel to safeguard and establish peace in that region despite its enemies.  Generationally, prominent and insightful historians and expert analysts, military and otherwise, attest to those efforts to bring reconciliation and harmonious co-existence between Jews and others in the region.  Yet, in 2023, this same United Nations failed to wholly condemn Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups, let alone call for the arrest and trial of war criminals who slaughtered over 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds of others.    

 
Catholic leaders, overall have raised their voices for peace.  Our current Pope Leo XIV, dismayed by the recent developments in the Middle East, urges diplomacy, but how?   In fact, even as Iran bombed a day care center and hospital in Israel, it basically gave lip service to “peace talks” and only under their conditions.

 
Candidly such peace seeking efforts do seem most ineffective and sadly impractical.  Peace talks have become the antagonizer’s  mechanism for delay while building up arms and planning offenses against those who truly want a “live and let live” approach to international policy.  The situation is akin to expecting the devil to suddenly preach the Gospel.

 
(I will interject that none of us should be hopeless about peace, and prayer can be most powerful so we must persist in that and genuine Catholicism with respect to conflict.)

 
The third condition relates to the prospect for success.  That all three major nuclear enrichment sites were bombarded and obliviated seems to speak to that.   Finally, the use of arms was confined to the destruction of massively dangerous nuclear armament that its “owner” already declared would be used against enemies.  Even so, the U.S.A. action was prudently and temperately restricted to the mechanism, not persons.  Note, too,  that Iran was not advancing this arsenal for self defense but to destroy. The bombing action could be compared to the successful disarmament of a kidnapper holding hostages, albeit on a much larger scale.  Finally, President Trump has insisted  America still wants peace; it does not seek regime change, let alone “boots on the ground.”

 
What is war good for…as the song proceeds…absolutely nothing.  Sometimes, though, not acting brings about worse warfare.

In the meantime, as long as the temporal world exists, there will be war.  Most critically, as the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Mother Teresa and other great holy persons have insisted, all war begins within the individual souls of persons.  We cannot “fight” the world, but we can combat inclinations that fuel lethal chaos and worsen infighting.   As  Catholics, let us model sanctified peace, cultivate fortitude, while absolutely highlighting informative empathy.   We might surprise ourselves as to how such truth and love can restore peace, at least in our homes, community, and nation. 

It seems to me that this is what Jesus was conveying when he prepared his disciples.