Iraq war and Morality

Interesting discussion over at the Jesus Politics. I entered into a little debate about the morality of the war. "Christy" was mad about a post criticizing the American war and asking where the Prince of Peace was this Christmas. She wanted to know if the writer was as upset about Saddam's rape rooms, etc. I responded that all of us agreed that Saddam was bad, but how did that justify our actions? She was unimpressed. I decided to put it in a different way.

"Let's put this in little morality play. Say that your children are playing at a local playground (not the hated and evil government school) and there is this one Bully who likes to humiliate and beat up certain kids--including friends of your children. Now, he has stopped beating up new people, but continues to humiliate certain kids. Your children band together and stand up to Bully and make him stop.

[Now, so far, this morality play represents how you see Iraq, I believe, but not necessarily how I do. But I am giving you the benefit of the doubt here. Like I said earlier, this is how many people see the Iraq war.]

But here is where the story takes an odd turn. Your children and their friends not only have stopped Bully, but they have decided to turn their sights on people who supported Bully. But they really don't know for sure which of the other kids did that. So they start humiliating (making them eat bad stuff, pulling down their pants, punching them in the stomach) these other kids--most of who were also victims of Bully. They come back home and tell you what they did. They say that they stood up to Bully and you are proud of them. They then say that since Bully had humiliated kids, they had decided to also humiliate other kids--but weren't sure if they were really guilty kids or not.

How do you respond to this? Do you pat your kids on the back and tell them that as long as other people started acting evil, it is okay for you to? Or do you say, well, you weren't as bad as Bully, so you are ok."

That is with the generous interpretation of the Iraq war. For the rest of us, it looks more like a really big bully comes along (let's call him Tex) and decides that while he had enjoyed and tolerated Bully in previous years when the victims had been people Tex didn't like either, now Bully has to go. So Tex dismisses the concerns of other, older kids, and smacks Bully down. In the process of the Bully beat-down, many of Bully's victims are caught in the swinging fists and kicking feet. Tex tells them that they are better off and should thank him. Then he appoints a different Bully to act as their playground leader. When some object, Tex starts doing some of the very same acts of intimidation and humiliation that Bully had enjoyed doing--to the very same kids. Then Tex wonders why the kids who had been bullied by Bully don't like him. Of course, if we are true to the story, Tex believes that these kids do like him and admire him even as his henchmen abuse them.