Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Democracy = Peace?
More press conference fun…
The President said today something along the lines of democracy being the world’s best hope for peace.
I won’t even get into the theological problems of this statement coming from the mouth of a professed born again Christian.
But, looking at the history of the United States, his statement simply doesn’t add up. For example, here are some of the wars that the world’s first democracy has engaged in since its birth:
- The Revolutionary War.
- The War of 1812.
- The Mexican-American War.
- The Civil War.
- The Spanish-American War.
- World War I.
- World War II.
- The Korean War.
- The Vietnam War.
- Gulf War I.
- Gulf War II.
This, of course, leaves out the numerous “police actions” we have undertaken in places such as Panama, Grenada, and Kosovo, and the large number of proxy wars we have fought in places such as Central America.
If that’s peace, I’d hate to see his definition of war!
June 28th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
Why does everyone get so bent out of shape about war….war has always been and it always will be on this earth…there are wars all through the Bible so why do we expect peace now?
June 28th, 2005 at 1:51 pm
Dave - you make a good point, which isn’t dissimilar from what I was saying. Are we ever going to be able to eradicate war in our current, fallen world? Of course not. But that doesn’t mean that we have to contribute to the logic of war in our own lives.
We can’t bring complete peace to the world (although it is Biblical to try - “blessed are the peacemakers”), but we can bring peace to our dealings with others. And we can assert that the reality is that it isn’t wars, it isn’t democracy - it is Jesus which is the world’s best hope for peace.