Saturday 9 August 2014

We Live Our Lives Forwards

I am not a pacifist. Sometimes I think it is necessary that we send people to fight.

And I realise that the best time to decide whether to fight is after the event. But we live our lives forwards, so that is a luxury not granted to us.

Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait always seems to me a war we should have fought. A nasty dictator, but more to the point the invasion of a friendly country - the logic said "yes".

Afghanistan - up to the point where Al Qaeda was disrupted - probably likewise. That was self-defence.

The intervention in Bosnia - protecting the innocents - yes. Just not soon enough.

Iraq last time - never, never. No justification, no way - just dodgy evidence. Which we discovered afterwards, mostly. But someone decided they wanted a war, so we had one. Yeah Saddam was nasty. But if we invaded every country with a nasty leader we'd never stop fighting.

At the minute, America's intervention in Iraq feels completely right. Let's pray they are. You never can know what might happen next. We live our lives forwards.

1 comment :

  1. Agree entirely. Something has to be done against such cruel ruthlessness.

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