Assignment 9: Theodore

    Extremists on this issue are wrong. The world tried to ban war in the 1928 Kellogg Pact. That didn’t stop World War II. But it’s difficult to characterize any war as good; WWII led to the unnecessary and immoral Japanese-American internment. Still, wars — especially those intended to defeat an evil — can be morally right; however, only historians have enough context to judge a conflict.

    Hypothetical examples abound of justifiable wars — a rogue dictator collects horrible weapons and prepares to kill innocents — but reality is never that simple. Sometimes the dictator doesn’t have weapons of mass destruction. Sometimes leaders start wars as an excuse to clamp down on internal dissidents. Wars start even when everyone prefers peace. Despite the grim specter of nuclear war, humanity almost pushed the button during the Cold War at least once because of a misunderstanding. And the border between war and fighting during “peacetime” is murky. America has not declared war since the 1940s, but thousands died in Vietnam and Iraq.

    But do alternatives work? Leaders should turn to diplomacy as the first option, and the next option. Naturally, the government used to ensure that the State Department did not face staffing problems. What if America comes into conflict with a rogue leader who definitely possesses nuclear weapons, and diplomacy reaches an impasse? Yes, what about North Korea? Unfortunately, not much will improve on the Korean Peninsula. Saber-rattling risks a war that will decimate Seoul (the capital of South Korea, our ally). China, fearing democracy, opposes pressuring North Korea for regime change. The best the world may hope for is that the tension gradually de-escalates over a few decades. It’s not easy to accept that neither war nor diplomacy works well. A leader needs courage to back down from a confrontation; let’s hope this courage exists.