Peace or War - What's The Right Thing to Do?
By Alicia Colon
Rightgrrl Contributor
September 27, 2001
In the midst of the preparation for war against terrorism, there are growing peace demonstrations, particularly in the traditional seats of liberalism in California. Berkeley students and professors are once again carrying banners and protesting any military action against the innocent people in Afghanistan. It is easy to dismiss these middle class, affluent and spoiled demonstrators as misguided and naïve but at the crux of their ranting is a question that haunts people of faith everywhere. When is it morally acceptable to kill anyone? Christians are asking themselves-" What would Jesus do?" Is war ever right?
One great thing about being a Catholic is that we can look to the Pope as the arbiter of moral issues and we believe that, in faith and moral rulings, he is infallible. If Pope John Paul II supports the war against terrorism there is a good reason why. In our catechism we are taught that the only reason it is ever permitted to kill is in the case of self-defense. If ever there was a case of self-defense, this is it. The future of the world, not just America, is at stake.
According to his chief spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the pope understands that in defending a nation, it is sometimes more harmful to sit and do nothing and that peace sometimes has to take a back seat to self-defense. If the Pope says it’s okay to go after terrorists, than it’s all right with me. For me the case is closed.
Still there are those who misread the teachings of Christ and insist that His admonition to turn the other cheek applies any time we are attacked. Those who read the scriptures without understanding why those particular words were written are liable to misinterpret them. Elitists are quick to condemn organized religion but Christ instituted a church exactly for the purpose of preventing confusion and for addressing moral questions that would arise in the future which could not have been explained in 33 AD. Cloning, stem cells, genetic research all raise moral and ethical issues that require scholarly and theological research, something the average person has little time for.
Ironically, many liberals who are wont to condemn anyone daring to blame the victims for crimes committed against them, are doing that exact same thing. They pompously cite U.S. military history as the cause for this catastrophe. We are somehow to blame for the World Trade Center horror, they speculate, because of what we’ve done to others. Some have idiotically compared our bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the attack on New York City. Those cities had civilian casualties of over 120,000 but there is no comparison between their destruction and ours. The atomic bombings were not a vengeful act. We were at war and in such a situation; all civilians are at risk while their governments do what they can to protect them. Japan had been duly warned to evacuate those islands. We were not. We also were not the initiator of that war but were rather defenders against those with evil intent.
I am having a difficult time controlling an impulse to lash out at these "peaceniks" staging these ridiculous rallies. I thought I had seen the last of them once the Vietnam conflict ended. Some of them wandered into the limelight again with the Vieques bombing site controversy but here they are again led by that most ridiculous ‘60’s relic of all, Ramsey Clark. He and his deluded phonies just don’t get it. These calls for peace continue to insist that revenge is the primary purpose of this Bush's war on terrorism and that we are sinking to the level of these Islamic fanatics with the same bloodthirsty zeal.
Let me spell it out loud and clear to you morons and mental ciphers who can’t get your head out of the clouds long enough to face reality. This war is necessary to prevent more and greater acts of terrorism once and for all. Today, the WTC, tomorrow, the world! Get it? If you think you have an easier way to deal with suicidal maniacs than let’s hear your brilliant ideas. Why not just admit the truth, you two bit hypocrites? You’re just as anti-American as Osama bin Laden but you'd rather reside amidst creature comforts provided by the host you despise rather than in third world countries that share your disdain.
So many of you marched against the Vietnam War under the banner of the peacemaker because you were afraid your own sorry asses would be in danger. When that war ended and you and your own loved ones were out of danger, your pacifist beliefs did not extend to include concern for the millions of Cambodians who died on the killing fields after U.S. forces left. No, it was back to smoking weed and soon it was exercising to Hanoi Jane tapes and saving whales.
Sorry, I guess I wasn’t too successful in controlling the lashing out. I must be reminded often that blind anger and hatred is a sin so I do not hate or despise Osama Bin Laden. He is merely an instrument of evil as are all those who assist him in his blind fury against our open and free society. At least, he is committed to this insanity through genuine belief because he has eschewed materialistic trappings and lives among his comrades in caves.
I have far more contempt for his well-fed and well-clothed sympathizers spouting peace and marching against their own country. God bless our America which allows them to do so.
Alicia's column archives can be found at www.aliciacolon.com
Copyright 2001 by Alicia Colon. Not to be reproduced in any fashion, in whole or in part, without written consent from the author. All rights reserved.