Hostages to Pacifism

The Iraq war is strenuously opposed by the "wage peace" crowd. One might expect that pacifists would reserve an equal amount of disdain for everyone involved in armed conflict, be they US Marines or jihadists wearing explosive accessories. But the virtues of nonviolence are only preached towards participants on one side of the war, and conveniently, from within societies which already safeguard freedom, dissent, and domestic peace.

Millions are invested in smart bombs, and a phalanx of lawyers review each tactical military decision on the part of the U.S.-led coalition to make sure they will not run afoul of international law, injure civilians or otherwise inflict non-military harm. But there's no partial credit. This is wholly unacceptable to the advocates of peace. At the same time the islamo-fascists blow up school children and pizza parlors, but they are immune from the scolding critique of liberation theologists, college professors, and Sean Penn about the cycle of violence.

Perhaps this will turn around now that four peace activists have been kidnapped in Iraq. They are members of an organization that goes by the name Christian Peacemaker Teams. Well, here's your chance, guys! You try and talk the gentlemen with the rocket launchers and fetching scarves into the idea that their IEDs and truck bombs run contrary to the lessons of Gandhi and Thoreau. Instruct them in the ways of civil disobedience as a means to promote change, and teach them to eschew indiscriminate slaughter. Maybe it'll work!

And maybe it won't. To be more serious about it - those of us who are religious should pray that they are released. But we might also hope that they are eventually interviewed and asked a few pointed questions about how their pacifism matched with violent, insurgent reality. We've all seen the bumper sticker asking why we "use violence to teach violence is wrong" - but this deliberately mis-states the reason for warfare. We don't use violence to teach anything - primarily it's used to make the extremists really, really dead. Maybe the secondary effect is to teach any accidental extremist survivors that they will be made really dead too if they continue to assault democratic societies - but that's strictly a bonus.

Agree with it or don't. But let's be clear on how it works.