An editorial in our local paper this morning, asked “With the combined tab for the wars in Afganistan closing in on a trillion dollars – all borrowed – events are raising new questions about whether these wars were worth it.”

Here’s my response.

Once more public opinion is drifting toward a majority asking, “What Have We Gained?” (PNJ 4/10/2010)  Soon, as in the case of Vietnam some who supported the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq will be saying, “Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, wrong reasons.”  Will we ever get to the place where a majority will say, as  Quakers and other pacifists do, “War is not the answer!”

Some will say that even Chimpanzees  and Baboon troops  go to war; that the response is so deeply engrained in our brains that whenever our “tribe” feels threatened, we will resort to violent retaliation; that intercontinental missiles are just spears “improved” ten thousand fold. That’s nonsense!

I do not share that pessimism.  I believe there is the potential in our nature to see all humanity as our “tribe” and to reject any method of conflict resolution that leads to the massive killing of non combatants as all wars do.

Though few will come to the pacifist position, perhaps a majority of Americans will ask when urged to go to war, “What will we have gained.”

If not morality, perhaps prudence will convince us that, as Quakers teach,  “War is not the answer.”