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‘War, What is it Good For? Absolutely Nothing.’ Really?
By Dr. Mark Creech - May 27, 2019

Reflections for Memorial Day

On my commute home after a long day, the 1970s hit song “War” by Edwin Starr came over my Serius radio station. I can remember passionately singing its lyrics, “War, what is good for? Absolutely nothing,” at age 11 when it was at the top of the Billboard charts. And there I was alone in my car fifty years later, once again, singing those same words, when suddenly I paused mid-lyrics, realizing I didn’t believe that anymore.

Not all war is wrong. Granted, war always tends to produce greater evils than those which precipitated its cause. But to argue all war is wrong – to say that there is absolutely nothing good about it – just isn’t true.

The pacifist’s position on war nor the militarist’s view is actually right. The truth lies between the two extremes.

America’s first great military general, George Washington, expressed the desire of every sober-minded person concerning war. Washington said:

“My first wish is to see the whole world in peace, and the inhabitants of it as one band of brothers, striving who should contribute most to the happiness of mankind. For the sake of humanity, it is devoutly to be wished that the manly employments of agriculture and the humanizing benefits of commerce should suspend the wastes of war and the rage of conquest and that the sword may be turned into the plow-share.”
Nevertheless, as the late Presbyterian scholar, Lorraine Boettner argued in his classic publication, “The Christian Attitude Toward War,” war is sometimes just, necessary, and sometimes good. Boettner writes:

“If the people of Europe had not resisted the Mohammedan invasions, Europe would have been conquered and, humanly speaking, Christianity would have been stamped out. If at the time of the Reformation the Protestants had not resisted the Roman Catholic persecutions, crimes such as were practiced so freely in the Spanish and Italian Inquisitions would have become common all over Europe, and Protestantism would have been destroyed. If the American colonists had not fought for their rights, this country would not have gained its independence…We desire peace, but we realize there are some things worse than war. We desire peace, but not the kind found in the slave camp or the cemetery.”
Over and again in the Old Testament, God directly commands the Israelites to go to war against their enemies. After they were delivered from Egypt, Moses and the people sang:

“Jehovah is a man of war: Jehovah is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea” (Exod. 15:3,4).
After wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, the Israelites entered the Promised Land, and God told them to drive out its wicked inhabitants. Joshua received direct instructions from God as to how to fight the battle of Jericho. Many of the Psalms are prayers for guidance and victory during war-time. The nations that Israel often fought were so vile and sinful that God authorized war against them to wipe them out. And when the Israelites became like the pagan nations and were abominable in their own behaviors, God raised armies to make war against them. There is no question that the Scriptures teach that war, in the Providence of the Almighty, is sometimes sanctioned and divinely appointed.

It may sound remarkably striking, but the truth is war can serve wholesome objectives.

Of course, someone will quickly take exception to this assertion and claim the New Testament has a different message. The teachings of Christ always forbid war, they’ll say. Such arguments can seem quite persuasive, when based on some poignant sentiment, or when Scripture is selectively employed, and the larger context of the Bible’s teachings as a whole on the subject is avoided.

The New Testament doesn’t provide any direct teaching on war. Jesus does command his followers to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. The apostle Paul teaches in the book of Romans that Christians must recognize the authority of civil government and perform their duties to their country. It is also true that Christians are living in a different dispensation than the people of God in Old Testament times. Still, as Boettner contends:

“When rightly understood the two Testaments are supplementary, not contradictory. The silence of the New Testament on the subject of war apparently rests on the assumption that the subject had been adequately treated and did not call for any addition or modification.”
I believe the wars America has fought through the years were just and right. I think Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State who served under President George W. Bush, summed it up quite eloquently when he said:

“Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those who did not return.”
This Memorial Day Weekend, we remember those who gave their lives to secure our freedom. As Abraham Lincoln said in his incomparable Gettysburg Address:

“that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
“War, what is good for? Absolutely nothing.”
No, that just isn’t true.

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

"WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives."
Major General Smedley Butler, 1935

https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

To read such lines penned by a US Marine Corps General... Wow. Just... Wow. He goes on:

"But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children?

What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits?

Yes, and what does it profit the nation?"

"It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h__zgVz9fN4

MR Mister Loc: Washington DC

I guess you think fighting the Nazis and the creeps that killed 3000 young sailors in Pearl Harbor was a racket too.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Whatever the fundamental differences are we nevertheless owe much gratitude to our fallen.. Righteously marching on or scammed into a war these men did not think of money or it being a good or bad decision!! They simply went and gave the ultimate..

This is what this day is about~~ not it being right or wrong as the history books relate but rather the human life sacrifices made so we may all be free!!

Honor them!!

Kazudy

That was a great episode of the T.V. show” Seinfeld.”

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

That sure is some generalization. What about the Islamic caliphate? That is not about money. It's a Holy War. Their definition, not mine. Ask any soldier that's been deployed over "there" in the last twenty years. Unfortunately evil exits and sometimes good has to take it on. I in no way disagree totally with your statements. Hell the Johnsons, especially on Ladybirds side got rich off the Vietnam War.

4430 Loc: Little Egypt ** Southern Illinory

++++++++++++++
"It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements."
++++++++++++++

What kind of world we be living in today if the Nazi's and Japanese weren't stopped what kind of world would we live in if Muslims ruled and forced Islam on everyone ? ? ? ?

Yes War is evil BTDT but to stand by while the rest of the world is taken over by evil corrupt people means it'd only be time till the total world would be at our door steps saying surrender or die !

So the question would be are we MEN and willing to step up to the plate and fight and defend our lifestyle and freedoms OR would we be wimps and stand back and do nothing and surrender ? ? ? ?

MR Mister Loc: Washington DC

4430 Loc: Little Egypt ** Southern Illinory

You bet they did and Big Time and I still can't stomach the Johnson's we won every battle we were in but the Politicians lost the war because they didn't have the guts and balls to fight it to win !

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

If you knew the basis for any of it, you wouldn't have written that, so I'll forgive your ignorance. I'm not going to waste my time trying to edjumicate you because you won't pay one whit of attention and in the end, it won't make any difference anyway. Take it from a decorated Marine Corps General. It's a racket where the profits are measured in dollars and the losses in lives.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Well said

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

War is the continuation of politics by other means.
Von Clauswitz

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.....
Edwin Starr [lyrics]

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

The French would tell you: war is sometimes necessary. Others, not so much so.

Soldiers fight as they're told, and soldiers die. That is what Memorial day is about; soldiers doing what they are told they must, right or wrong.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Social events are nothing more than warfare concealed. Many like it more open, more honest! Name that show.