De bello

[chickenfeet]

A number of threads that have been doing the rounds have had me thinking about war and how we relate to it. I guess my tentative conclusion is that for those of us of Anglo-American affiliations our reactions have been profoundly distorted by WW2. For once, a war between the major powers could reasonably be cast in moral terms. Has that been the case before or since? Not obviously, I would submit.

Between 1918 and 1939 the idea of a 'moral war' had little resonance. The struggle against Hitler resurrected the idea of a just war and we have been living with the consequences ever since.

Dulce et decorum est?

Comments

[rahael.livejournal.com]

I think about this issue a lot. Despite my post, I am not someone who says "peace at any price". Peace which consigns whole groups of people into tyranny and oppression sits badly with me. Mostly because I have had experience of it. How terrifying it is - for those people, the war continues. It's just peaceful for everyone else.

On the other hand, war is terrible. It shreds you. The men and women who fight get broken. The civilians are completely traumatised.

My only conclusion is that those of us who are able to have both peace, and live with rights that are protected, and who live in societies that have all these safeguards - how lucky we are.

If I smile every morning, it is because of this.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I know where you are coming from but the older i get the more skeptical I get about going to war. I can construct all kinds of 'just war' arguments but I can't escape the conclusion that 99/100 wars are motivated by greed or are just plain fuck ups.

War

[moon-muppy.livejournal.com]

A just war isn't the ideal. No war is... All we have to do, is make sure we don't, in any country, feel trapped. Without choice, and without voice. And we have to remember that no-one is capable of representing everyones values.
Hitler unfortunately decided he was the judge for everything and everyone. I've been watching "The Nazis a warning from History" and it's absolutely fascinating. It really makes you stop........and think.