Reality Check 101

 War is an ugly blight on humanity; a tragic part of history that, nevertheless, has been and continues to be an undeniable fact. The fact of war does not excuse its existence but should at least provide for a reality check for sincere idealists and for the less than sincere as well.

Scholars and politicians both ancient and modern have offered varying explanations and solutions to the war phenomenon. The list of explanations is long: power conflicts, intolerance, nationalism, cultural violence, religion, economics, opposing interests, conflicting perceptions of the world and others, bad nations and leaders, or simply a desire for conflict.

Proposed solutions follow particular explanations. Power, for example, must be controlled either from the top down by one nation over others or by mutual management among all. Intolerance, misperceptions, nationalism and self-interest should be remedied through training, education and familiarization. If economics is the culprit then socialism or free enterprise or something in between should produce international economic equality and banish conflict.

But dictatorships and democracies still go to war. The United Nations and the European Union have not achieved political harmony or economic equality and their member nations still go to war. The most socially and technologically advanced nations in the world have not managed to avoid military conflict or stem the tide of terrorism.

It is a simple but profound truth that war happens because there is evil in this world which is at home in evil people. Both need only the slightest excuse to fight for their goals. Blood-lust or a seething desire for power and wealth fuel aggression no less than do hatred against another’s “kind” or envy for what another has or has achieved.

Terrorism is no different. Evil desires and evil motives cloaked in errant religion seek more power and wealth, if at least in an afterlife paradise, and the eradication of “kinds” unlike itself. So it is that Islamic terrorism declared war on the United States and her allies on April 18, 1983. On that day, Islamic Jihad destroyed our embassy in Beirut Lebanon killing 63 people including 17 Americans. A scant six months later, as if to clarify their declaration and flaunt their power, another suicide bomber murdered 241 Americans at a Marine Barracks in Beirut. During the next 18 years, between 1983 and 2001, Americans and American interests were attacked another eighteen times. At the end of that period terrorism’s war had cost America and her allies over 975 lives and over 5,600 injured. In that nearly two decades of unprovoked bloodshed the United States did not respond in like kind but was a paragon of self restraint – to a fault. Then came September 11, 2001. On that single day the death toll rose to a little under 4,000.

If there is one lesson to have been learned over the last twenty-five years, indeed throughout history, about despots (including Islamic ones) and terrorists, it is that they are not good people doing bad things. They neither respect nor understand qualities such as mercy, goodness, humility, compassion or freedom. To the contrary, they despise those traits as laughable if not disgusting weaknesses. Terrorism understands only defeat because evil understands only defeat. Defeat only happens when good people sacrifice to destroy evil doers.

For justice and righteousness to prevail, genuinely good people must have the courage to act, but not by impotently pleading for peace from street corners, classrooms, or congressional podiums. No good can flourish in the world without justice, justice cannot exist without judgment, judgment demands the defeat and punishment of evil. Only then will there be no more war.