does just justifiable war exist hi there netters i have a question i would very much like to see some discussion on is there such a thing as a justifible war what i would love to see it some basis from scripture for either all war is wrong or some war is justifiable to get things started i would like to outline why i am asking the question in my high school days i had been quite involved in the the new zealand cadet forces this is a bit like rotc from what i understand of it but with a lot more emphasis on fun than military career training through this i became extremely enamoured of flying have become involved in the sport of gliding and have a great interest in military aviation hardware as the very best a real flyer could ask for my favourite computer games are the accurate simulations of military aircraft both past and present i became a christian about years ago and at the time rejected all military activity as immoral for me all war was in complete opposition to god s commandments to love one another especially one s enemies during the war in iraq i found myself with great excitement listening to the reports of the effectiveness of the the attacks using the aviation technology i so admire the f a stealh bomber the f f and f strike aircraft etc after the war concluded i began to really enjoy simulations based around this conflict great to go and bomb saddam s bio weapons plants in an f a on my computer or shoot down some of his mig s in an f the simulation of the death of people was a wonderful game i imagine the real pilots view the real thing in much the same way one only has to look at the language used to see that the personal impact of war is ignored a building containing people or an aircraft flown by a pilot is simply a target dead civilians are collateral damage these euphanisms are a way of removing the reality of war from the people whose support are necessary for the continued waging of war one only has to look at vietnam to see how important public opinion is now we see troops sponsored by the united nations entering somalia and the prospect of military intervention in the muslim croat serb conflict in the former yugoslavia my revulsion in particular to the siege of sarajevo and in the last few days of sorry bout spelling sebrenitsa has caused me to rethink where i stand on justifiable war i will list several wars in the last years i can look at each and say yes this may have been justifible this may not these are simply my gut reactions to each in many cases with the benefit of the impartiality history brings let me go through a few and state some of my reasons for my reaction i am not a historian so excuse any historical blunders i am working from popular history as it is known in new zealand the second world war murder of jews hitler had to be stopped massive civilian casualties on both sides dresden hiroshima nagasaki probably justifiable korean war political expansionism by north korea basically communism vs capitalism probably not justifiable vietnam as above worsened by us involvement vietnamese invasion of cambodia genocide by khmer rouge probably justifiable iraq desert storm political expansionism threat to world oil supply other factors such as genocide not sure but probably justifiable a future involvement in bosnia genocide so called ethnic cleansing emotive much tv coverage of atrocities and civilian casualties probably justifiable possible future use of nuclear weapons tactical or strategic somewhere in the world by the us in response to someone else e g libya or israel my feelings in this are simple nuclear war weapons are abhorrent i love the new zealand government s stand on banning all nuclear armed or powered warships from nz port never justifiable these are my own views i have looked at scripture and i am confused i would appreciate others view particularly those based on scripture i don t want a naaahh yer wrong i think answers thanks for your help alastair thomson phone chief programmer fax the black albatross porject university of otago department of computer science e mail alastair farli otago ac nz p o box athomson otago ac nz dunedin nextmail welcome new zealand god loved the world so much that he gave us his son to die in our place so that we may have eternal life john paraphrase
