Hi there netters, I have a question I would very much like to see some discussion on: Is there such a thing as a 'justifible' war?   What I would love to see it some basis from scripture for either: "All war   is wrong", or "Some war is justifiable".   To get things started I would like to outline why I am asking the   question. In my high school days I had been quite involved in the the New   Zealand Cadet Forces (This is a bit like ROTC from what I understand of   it, but with a lot more emphasis on fun than military career training).   Through this I became extremely enamoured of flying, have become involved   in the sport of gliding, and have a great interest in military aviation   hardware as the very best a 'real' flyer could ask for. My favourite   computer games are the accurate simulations of military aircraft, both   past and present.   I became a Christian about 10 years ago, and at the time rejected all   military activity as immoral. For me, all war was in complete opposition   to God's commandments to love one another, especially one's enemies.  During the war in Iraq, I found myself with great excitement listening to   the reports of the effectiveness of the the attacks using the aviation   technology I so admire - The F117A 'Stealh' bomber, the F14, F15 and F16   strike aircraft, etc. After the war concluded I began to really enjoy   simulations based around this conflict - Great to go and bomb Saddam's   bio-weapons plants in an F117A on my computer, or shoot down some of his   Mig's in an F16. The simulation of the death of people was a wonderful   game. I imagine the real pilots view the real thing in much the same way.   One only has to look at the language used to see that the personal impact   of war is ignored: A building containing people, or an aircraft flown by a   pilot is simply a 'target'. Dead civilians are 'collateral damage'. These   euphanisms are a way of removing the reality of war from the people whose   support are necessary for the continued waging of war - One only has to   look at Vietnam to see how important public opinion is.  Now we see troops sponsored by the United Nations entering Somalia, and   the prospect of military intervention in the Muslim/Croat/Serb conflict in   the former Yugoslavia. My revulsion in particular to the siege of   Sarajevo, and in the last few days of (sorry 'bout spelling) Sebrenitsa,   has caused me to rethink where I stand on 'justifiable' war.  I will list several wars in the last 50 years I can look at each, and say   - Yes this may have been justifible, this may not. These are simply my gut   reactions to each - In many cases with the benefit of the impartiality   history brings. Let me go through a few and state some of my reasons for   my reaction - I am not a historian, so excuse any historical blunders, I   am working from popular history as it is known in New Zealand.  1. The Second World War 	- Murder of Jews - Hitler had to be stopped. 	- Massive civilian casualties on both sides  		- Dresden, Hiroshima/Nagasaki 	- Probably justifiable.  2. Korean war 	- Political expansionism by North Korea, basically 	  communism vs. capitalism. 	- Probably not justifiable.  3. Vietnam 	- As above, worsened by US involvement.  4. Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. 	- Genocide by Khmer Rouge. 	- Probably justifiable.  5. Iraq (Desert Storm) 	- Political expansionism, threat to world oil supply 	- Other factors such as genocide. 	- Not sure, but probably justifiable  6. A future involvement in Bosnia 	- Genocide - so called 'Ethnic Cleansing' 	- Emotive - much TV coverage of atrocities and civilian casualties. 	- Probably justifiable  7. Possible future use of nuclear weapons - tactical or strategic,   somewhere in the world by the US in response to someone else - e.g. Libya   or Israel. 	- My feelings in this are simple 	- Nuclear war/weapons are abhorrent 	- I love the New Zealand government's stand on banning all nuclear 	  armed or powered warships from NZ port. 	- Never justifiable.  These are my own views, I have looked at scripture, and I am confused. I   would appreciate others view, particularly those based on scripture. I   *don't* want a - Naaahh, yer wrong - I think answers 8-).  Thanks for your help.  ==========================================================================                                     | Alastair Thomson,                   | Phone +64-3-479-8347 Chief Programmer,                   | Fax   +64-3-479-8529 The Black Albatross Porject,        | University of Otago,                | Department of Computer Science,     | e-mail alastair@farli.otago.ac.nz P.O. Box 56                         |        athomson@otago.ac.nz Dunedin                             | NeXTmail Welcome New Zealand                         |      "God loved the world so much, that he gave us His Son, to die in      our place, so that we may have eternal life" John 3:16, paraphrase