The War

Andrew Sullivan, who lately has been lamenting his earlier support of war, has in the last two days been highlighting the atrocities of war -- especially the killing of innocent children and babies. Now a reader of his site, an ex-Marine, writes:

Those photographs of little children are truly heart breaking and the thought that Marines did this intentionally fills me with a very sick feeling (since I was a Marine myself). That much said, don't yet despair about what this country has become. This is no excuse, but such atrocities happen in all wars (My Lai for example involved scores more casualties).

There, that's the excuse: atrocities happen in all wars. We can relax and feel better about things. That's how this ex-Marine lives with his conscience.

It is indeed true that atrocities occur in all wars, as this reader (and soldier) writes. It is for precisely this reason that so many of us opposed the Iraq war--we knew there would inevitably be many innocent men, women and children killed and maimed, because this is indeed the nature of war. If we learned nothing else from the massive, horrendous, disgusting atrocities of the twentieth century, it is that innocent civilians are overwhelmingly the victims of warfare. Tens of millions of them died in the last century. Was Andrew Sullivan or this Marine not paying attention? Do not dare to tell me these losses are novel or were unexpected. War is death.

The men -- and yes, the civilians -- who called for this war are all morally responsible. We all have our eyes wide open and we all know the blood, horror, and utter incivility that war will bring. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, anyone who voted for Bush in 2004 -- yes, even Andrew Sullivan -- are all responsible. The terrible pictures presented of innocents and children were all very, very predictable, and those who called for war are morally culpable. Anyone who called for war needs to look long and hard at these poor children and think many, many, many times about the havoc they've encouraged.

Then look at me and dare to tell me you worship God.