Good Violence?

Don't get me wrong, I am all for peace. I'm aboard the peace
train. I really identify with Bilbo's comments on the DVD intro
for "The Fellowship of the Ring" when he speaks of hobbits loving
quiet lives and good tilled earth and most of all peace! I can also
identify with their love of food and ale, but that's another story.
Never been much of a hand for pipeweed, however, but I digress.

The thing is, peace is not that simple. If peace only means an
absence of conflict, then count me out. To be in a small room
with people who hate each other so much they are not even
speaking and to say they are at peace because they are not
beating each other to death? Well, that doesn't sound like
peace to me. Peace is better defined by the Hebrew word
shalom, which is a very holistic term. One way to define
shalom is to say that it speaks of abundance, abundance for
all with heapin' helpins' of justice AND security thrown in
for good measure. There is no threat of being harmed by
the wicked in this version of peace. The lion lies down with
the lamb, and BOTH have adequate food, clothing, shelter,
and health insurance!

The realist in me suspects, however, that until that "great
gettin' up mornin' " when God makes everything o.k. again,
in this life sometimes the only way good people can live without
the threat of being harmed by the workers of evil is, as the
quotation goes, when rough men are willing to do violence on
their behalf.


No, I am not putting forward an argument for pre-emptive war!
Enough of that non-sense. Iraq was and continues to be a mistake,
a bloody, horrible mistake that has destabilized that part of the Near
East for decades to come, most likely. Saddam was really no "clear
and present danger" to the United States, even if he was a real terror
to his own people. Because of the policies of the current
administration, Iraq has lost almost a whole generation of its people.
On the other hand, we have managed to create a brand new crop
of terrorists. Terrific! Shameful doesn't cover it. But some people
never learn. Watch out for an "October surprise" with Iran.

Nevertheless, there are, it seems to me, good reasons at times
for rough men, or shall I say, rough PEOPLE, to do violence on
behalf of the innocent and oppressed. And the fact is, you don't
even have to think that hard about it: the Congo, Darfur,
Myanmar all come to mind. Regions with genocide and the loss
of innocent life on a massive scale. Civilians in the Congo have
been massacred and tortured due to greed over gold, gold that
causes wicked men with weapons to shed the blood of innocents,
gold that often finds its way into European and American hands.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died in recent years in
Darfur, Sudan, many of them Christians killed by the Janjaweed
militia. And many people are not aware of how the Karen people
of Burma/Myanmar have suffered at the hands of the
military regime. They have been systematically killed, raped,
tortured horribly, driven from their homes, forced into what is,
essentially, slavery. In such cases, especially Myanmar, I would
completely support armed intervention by the international
community. Myanmar, or Burma, in particular is an travesty.
The common people of Burma have been horribly oppresed by
the military regime for decades and then, after the recent
cyclone, the government won't even allow them to get the
assistance they need. Indeed, the military goons have even put
some of these suffering people to work at manual labor to clean
up from the disaster. They aren't even allowed to beg by the
side of the road. If any country ever needed a midnight visit
from the 82nd Airborne and the 75th Ranger Regiment,
it is Burma! However, it seems we are willing to rattle our
sabers if it is in our "national interest" but not when people are
suffering that we as a nation don't really give a damn about.

If you have seen "Hotel Rwanda," you know the relief that
was evident on the faces of the international guests when the
U.N. troops arrived to escort them from the nighmare Rwanda
had become, a country awash in its own genocide. And their relief
was due to the fact that those soldiers were ready and willing to do
violence on their behalf. That's why we are elated when Ironman
shows up to kill, yes, kill the terrorists, who are, well, terrorizing
the innocent residents of a Middle Eastern village. That's why we
are excited when Superman shows up in the nick of time to resuce
Lois Lane and every time we see Gandalf smite the Balrog's
ruin on the mountain side in "The Two Towers."

Violence of course must not be glorified and must be
used judiciously and can very easily be put to use in the service
of greed and power. It is, unfortunately, often our first resort
instead of our last resort in times of conflict. But that does not
mean that even the most peace-loving hobbit can ignore its
sometimes sad necessity. Give peace a chance? By all means.
But sometimes peace can only be achieved by the judicious use
of the righteous hammer of the wrath of God.