By Charles Kiker
I’m writing this on the 85th anniversary of the signing of the Kellogg-Briand pact on August 27, 1928. Kellogg-Briand made war on war, declaring that the only legal war in international relations was a war of self-defense. The United States Senate, by a vote of 85-1, ratified that treaty, entered into and agreed upon by the world’s major powers. The United States has never officially abrogated that treaty.
In at least 50 of the 85 years since that pact was signed there have been major conflicts involving one or more of the world’s major powers. In a very, very few of those years could one say the world was without some sort of armed conflict.
So much for international law!
The President has promised that the United States will withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, bringing to a close this country’s longest war.
But it seems likely that before that war ends, our country will be involved in another, a very messy situation in Syria.
It seems that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has used poison gas on the rebels there, killing scores if not hundreds of civilians: men, women and children.
Make no mistake about it. Assad is a bad guy. So was military dictator Mubarak. (By the way, the United States propped him up with billions of dollars in military aid during his long regime.) Just two years ago he was overthrown, and a year ago a civilian president was elected. But now the military in Egypt has overthrown the elected government; and Egypt once more lives under a military dictatorship in the midst of chaos.
So what happens if the United States gets militarily involved and assists the rebels in Syria of getting rid of Assad? Who will be in charge then? Will there be peace in Syria then? Not likely.
So what should be the Christian stance? What should Followers of the Way do? The Way, according to its author, is a way of peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers.” And his followers are countenanced to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”
So let us pray. And even while we pray, let us seek the way of peace. Let us be peacemakers in our own lives, in our own families, cities and towns, in our nation and in the world. As Followers of the Way let us just say “No!” to war.
It seems hopeless. But with God all things are possible.
