Military Families

"If God is on our side who can be against us?" states Paul in his letter to the Romans (8:31). The problem with this quote isn't the quote, of course, but the often twisted interpretation of it. Many seem to de-emphasize the "if" and assume that God must be on their side. Pre-emptive strikes would generally fall into that category. If Andy punched Brian because he heard that Brian was going to punch him, Andy is the one who did something wrong, no matter what a jerk Brian may be.

Defense, on the other hand, is often justified. WWII was certainly justified on the Allies part in Germany. The killing that Germany was guilty of warranted a response to make them stop killing more. Diplomacy failed. It was a winable battle. And the Allies probably didn't kill as many Axis as the Axis would have if left unimpeded. In Japan, however, dropping the atomic bomb to end the war sooner and save more lives overall on both sides would have been justified if those were not lives of non-combatants.

I just met another wife of a military husband today and there are a number of military families among my extended family and friends. These Christian soldiers are often put in a tough spot because of how questionable the justification of the war is that they find themselves in. It doesn't seem like Al-queda and the Taliban would have killed as many people as have died on both sides with Americans and others being over there. Of course, those that believe that a presence there has prevented more 9-11 type attacks could argue otherwise if they felt there were no other means for preventing those attacks. That's as debatable as what the definition of winning means. At least diplomacy was tried, and now that anger has subsided from the masses, efforts are focused on attaining peace and not revenge. It's too bad it couldn't have started that way (or not started at all).