Can The World Afford This $4 Trillion Expense?

 

The combined military spending of all of the
world's nations is a staggering $4 trillion a year. 

"The regenerated do not go to war, or engage in strife. They are the children of peace, who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and they know no war. Since we are conformed to the image of Christ, how then can we kill our enemies with the sword? Spears and swords made of iron we leave to those, alas, who consider human blood and swine’s blood as having well nigh equal value."    

- sixteenth-century reformer Menno Simons

I find it disheartening that even some of my Anabaptist-minded friends support war making by certain nations as a kind of necessary evil, believing they are the more innocent parties involved in acts of destruction and human butchery. "Lesser evilism" becomes a justification for actions that are morally unjustifiable no matter who engages in them or for whatever reason.

Too often perceived desirable ends are seen as justifying whatever regrettable means necessary to achieve them. Killing and maiming are seen as a form of needed self defense or for eliminating an evil enemy. Sadly, citizens on both sides firmly believe their cause is just, and that whatever they are doing in response is therefore justifiable, right and approved by their God.

But if the vision and teaching of Jesus and the prophets are to be taken seriously, we will urge everyone in the world to beat their military swords into plowshares, and to study war no more. If humanity is to survive we must all stop rationalizing all irrational and genocidal behavior. 

Unsurprisingly, no application of so called "just war" principles has ever been known to actually prevent a war. Not a single one. Not ever . And when it comes to "war crimes," it's high time that we rule out war itself as the most heinous crime imaginable.

Jesus consistently demonstrated what it means to defeat evil by doing good rather than inflicting harm. When his disciples asked him to call down fire from heaven to destroy their Samaritan enemies, Jesus rebuked them in no uncertain terms. And when one of them once drew his sword in Jesus's defense his response was swift and clear, Put your sword away. Those who wield the sword will perish by it.

Even if we set religious reasons aside, a total rejection of war as evil is not some utopian fantasy, but absolutely necessary for human survival.

https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2023/03/will-more-war-help-bring-about-more.html

https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-sword-in-romans-13-is-for.html