I have no quarrel with anyone on Earth that is serious enough to wish them dead. And so I find myself at a loss to understand anyone who would make a point by killing people en masse, or by ordering such killings.
Having seen the wreckage from the bombs that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago this summer, why would anyone say, “Holy man, I want to build me some of those?”
Why would you open a laboratory to research ways to make deadly viruses even more deadly? What maniac would deploy such weapons?
Why invest trillions of dollars in building devices with no other purpose than to break things and kill people?
Warfare is not only immoral and a crime against humanity, it is based on an absurdity. It is not grounded in common sense or logic. Killing vast numbers of people who disagree with you will never convince the survivors that you were right.
I can understand arguments that some violent act was committed in self-defense — understand, but not accept. That’s as far as I can go. If we are creatures of reason, there is always a reasonable alternative to violence. Violence solves nothing and can only lead to more violence. Violence is the failure of reason.
“But there’s no reasoning with these people,” one often hears, committing the first act that can lead to violence — reducing individuals with whom we have differences to “these people,” stripping them of their uniqueness. It’s hard to murder one person in cold blood, a little easier if he is one of “these people.”
I’m not here to say what should be done in any specific instances where people resort to war. “What would you have done, Warren?” The only answer I have is: Not this.
Nor am I in a position to criticize choices made by individuals charged with making those choices. I am simply here to mourn — mourn for the dead, mourn for people who felt this resort was the necessary one, and pray that they truly believed this was the last resort.
As always, there’s always much taking of sides out there, a lot of sanctimonious discussion about who is right and who is wrong. I’ll leave that to people who have no sin to atone.
As for me, I’m deeply disappointed that we are having these discussions in a culture based on the teachings of one who said to love God, love our neighbors, love our enemies. These actions and these discussions are far removed from love.
And so I am here to mourn.
