Thomas Merton On War

I listened to our illustrious president last night. His speech to the nation on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 was an infomercial for the Iraq war. Nothing he said justifies this war. Nothing he said convinced me that the threat of Saddam and terrorism is taken seriously in Washington. The actions and the way the war is being carried out is testament to that. The war exists to fulfill other priorities (nameless and unknown) and other agendas. The cynic in me believes that to be solely monetary. It is probably more true than not. I have long believed that America's goal is not to spread democracy, but to spread capitalism, with America as the chief producer of goods for sale.

But again, I am a cynic when it comes to this administration and capitalism and big business.

I include a quote from Thomas Merton on the morality of war, and the motives for going to war. Am I cynical, or is this just the way it is?

“Hence it becomes more and more difficult to estimate the morality of an act leading to war because it is more and more difficult to know precisely what is going on. Not only is war increasingly a matter for pure specialists operating with fantastically complex machinery, but above all there is the question of absolute secrecy regarding everything that seriously affects defense policy. We may amuse ourselves by reading the reports in mass media and imagine that these “facts” provide sufficient basis for moral judgments for and against war. But in reality, we are simply elaborating moral fantasies in a vacuum. Whatever we may decide, we remain completely at the mercy of the governmental power, or rather the anonymous power of managers and generals who stand behind the facade of government. We have no way of directly influencing the decisions and policies taken by these people. In practice, we must fall back on a blinder and blinder faith which more and more resigns itself to trusting the “legitimately constituted authority” without having the vaguest notion what that authority is liable to do next. This condition of irresponsibility and passivity is extremely dangerous. It is hardly conducive to genuine morality.”

~~From Passion for Peace: The Social Essays of Thomas Merton, edited by William H. Shannon (The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, NY, 1995) pages 113-114.