A conversation I was in a few days ago – about war and Anzac Day etc – reminded me of a similar conversation I’d had in America with a fellow student, back in the mumble-mumbles.

I was a teenager then and I had declared myself a pacifist. I believed that God had commanded that we should love and forgive everyone, even our enemies, so how could I then take another person’s life? In the full flush of know-it-all youth, I thought it was a simple matter. Then someone said, “What if you had a young family and someone broke into your home and threatened to kill your kids? Would you just stand idly by?”

Hmm. That gave me pause for thought. Then the someone said, “If everyone had just forgiven and loved Hitler, what would the world be like now? Would there be concentration camps with death chambers in every town? Would you stand by and watch Jews and disabled children and others, be sent to their deaths without lifting a finger to help them?” That’s when it occurred to me that it wasn’t simple. It was actually a complex issue.

What is war good for? I think it’s mainly good for death, horror, terror, destruction and cruelty. However, even in the Bible there were times when God sent His people to war. There are some awful things in the Old Testament and, quite frankly, humanity hasn’t changed that much since then.

I also know that in the midst of the horror we see not just the worst in people, we can also see the best: self-sacrifice, courage, mercy and endurance. 

I think WWII was an unfortunate necessity. On the other hand, I think the Gulf War was about oil. The Iraq war was a knee-jerk reaction to a terrorist act; the administration wanted/needed to be seen to be doing something … anything … and I think Vietnam was a foolish waste of time, lives and resources.

I’m now of the opinion that I am still a pacifist as far as I am able. If I were a young man back in the 40s, I’d have asked to be a medic or a code-breaker or an ambulance driver, rather than a combatant.

I don’t see Anzac Day or Memorial Day, or whatever your country’s equivalent is, as a day of glorifying war. I see it as a time to show our respect for the injured and the dead, and to remind  the world that we need to keep striving to find a better way. “At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them”. Not because being in the army and fighting in a war is a glorious thing, but because every human life is precious and we shouldn’t waste even one of them.

I still look for the day when the human race will say, “I ain’t gonna study war no more”. But I also know that there will occasionally be another Hitler, another Idi Amin, and as a community, we will have to do something about it. See? I said it wasn’t simple. What do you think?