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War: What is it Good For?

The Civilized States of America and Jesusland

There are causes I would be prepared to die for, somebody else's god is not one of them. Anybody's god is not one of them.

The calls to prayer are nauseating. It is ideology and theology that are causing all the problems with the world, continuing the suffering and the dying because people claim that the big problems of the world are for only God to solve. Well God does not seem to be good at solving them unaided. I see no evidence of any divine solution to global hunger, natural disasters, overpopulation, over-consumption, selfish greed and human hatred. These are all real problems that billions of prayers seems powerless to solve, I think for the obvious reason that there is nothing to hear the prayers or at the very least nothing capable of changing circumstances to suit our wishes. God helps those who help themselves. The best way to answer a prayer is to stop wasting your time hoping for change and to go on to change things yourself.

Action speaks louder than prayer.

The only way to solve the problems of the world we live in is to set aside the issue of god and the supernatural and to get down to fixing the problems ourselves. It has been said before but nothing will be lost by saying it again; imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try, no hell below us above us only sky.

It does not matter what you believe about the shape or history of the universe, what matters is the directions we take today. People have always said that god will find a way or works in mysterious ways. If god wants to work through this atheist he is welcome to do it, I just want to create a better, more peaceful world with a secure future for all our people. It strikes me as a much healthier and moral way to act than to put the love of a nebulous chameleon spirit above that of the flesh and blood people we share a planet with.

Vengeance is a sin

By reacting to terrorism with repression we play into the hands of those terrorists. They did not carry out these acts of terror without a thought to the consequences. They must have thought about the consequences and this did not deter them, it may even have encouraged them. This was not an attack on the USA, it was an attack on freedom and democracy.

There is no doubt that these were acts of war. They were acts of war on a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and therefore they were acts of war against my country also. We do have the authority to treat these acts as acts of war and to use appropriate military measures. However that does not mean that we should.

It is vitally important that America stays on the moral high ground. Only a few fanatics see the events of this week as anything other than horrific, obscene, criminal and profoundly wicked. To go over the top would be deeply counter productive. Military measures should be tightly focussed to specific and achievable goals taking all possible measures to minimize collateral damage. If a few dozen civilians get killed then the world could accept that, but world opinion would not countenance massive casualties. It is better to wait five years and nail the culprits than to act quickly and kill innocent people in a premature show of strength. The world will not forget this week. Nobody will ever forget it, nor should they.

They were right all along, all those people who said that the new millennium didn't start until 2001. They were simply wrong about the month. This is the real Black September, the start of a new era of international relations.

We have the ideal opportunity to wipe out terrorism. Never before has the whole world faced up to to the brutal reality of terrorism like this. Britain has been fighting against terrorism for thirty years while millions of Americans have seen it as somebody else's problem or even a romantic cause for freedom fighters. The recent arrests of Irish republican terrorists alongside Marxist guerillas and cocaine smugglers may have helped change that crazy image. The scenes from New York this week should be the final wake up call. There is never any glamour in terror. It is never justified to attack a democratic society with violence under any pretext.

There might never again be the chance for NATO and Russia to fight alongside each other against a common enemy. This opportunity should not be wasted or abused. Firm but fair, hard but well targeted. The response of America and her allies must be well measured. The current situation in world affairs is teetering on a knife-edge between the possibilities of eradicating terrorism as an International scourge and the prospect of an upwards ratcheting of tension and an escalation in terrorism across the Islamic world.

If George W Bush and Colin Powell keep their heads and respond to this outrage intelligently the world could be a safer place for freedom. If they fall into the all too easy mode of bombing easy targets in hot blooded revenge then the world may be entering a new era of terror and barbarism on an unprecedented scale. The stakes have never been higher. Never before has so much leadership skill and judgement been required of a man with so little obvious talent for it. We can only hope that he receives good advice and is not presented with any dangerous options.

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© 1999 - 2008 by Martin Willett.

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