I know, our excursions in the Middle East post-9\/11 have been rather dismal.\u00a0 Ill conceived and fought by a nation more interested in winning the latest ideological argument than uniting for a common cause, there wasn\u2019t reason to expect anything else.\u00a0 Still, just because we ventured into an ill advised war last time does not mean the call to arms will be equally ill advised.\u00a0 Many, particularly in the Catholic blogosphere, sound as if anything America does at this point is going to be wrong.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 A nuclear strike could be launched and whatever America does will be wrong.\u00a0 Part of this is the natural result of the Internet.\u00a0 I\u2019ve said many times that if the first casualty of war is innocence, the first casualty of the Internet is perspective.\u00a0 So many, including a fair number of Catholics in the blogosphere, meet any talk of defense, warnings, threats, or concerns as just a bunch of warmongering right wing nut jobs wanting to herd us all into another unjust war.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Problem is, sometimes wars have to be fought.\u00a0 Hopefully there will be no wars in the future.\u00a0 With four boys, one of which is getting\u00a0close to graduation, I\u2019m the last one to want a war.\u00a0 But sometimes it happens, just like crime happens on individual levels around the world.\u00a0 War is simply the societal equivalent to committing crimes.\u00a0 And one sure way to invite war is to ignore the causes leading up to war.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean grab a gun and start firing at the first sign of trouble.\u00a0 But it does mean being real about what\u2019s happening. For all the accusations that we are run by a crazed right wing war party just itching to invade Iran, I notice it hasn\u2019t happened yet.\u00a0 There have merely been dicsussions about what we could do, should do, and need to be prepared to do.<\/p>\n