In the last 10 years, I have been drawn to the plight of our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East, especially in areas impacted by the U.S.’s Global War on Terror (GWOT). The situation for Christians in Iraq has been devastating since the start of the Iraq War in 2003. At the beginning of the war, nearly 2 million Christians lived in Iraq, largely in the northern regions. Now, that number is below 200,000. This means 90% of the Christians in Iraq have either been killed or left because of ISIS.
When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, we didn’t consider the impacts on other peoples in the region or the overall stability of the Middle East. This is because, in our desire for retaliation, we didn’t count on the Islamic State (ISIS) rising from the ashes of the war we started. We didn’t keep in mind that retaliatory violence tends to beget more violence, especially when dealing with extremism.
What many people do not realize—thanks to the political talking points we were all fed—is that Christians largely lived their faith openly, albeit still with many difficulties in a predominately Muslim country, under Sadaam Hussein. They still suffered tremendously under his reign, but ISIS tortured, murdered, raped, tore down churches, and caused them to flee en masse. Before the Iraq War, Christians in the region celebrated Masses, baptisms, weddings, cared for church property, and lived as disciples of Christ. The deposing of one tyrant led to an even more vicious tyrant taking his place.
Reading Michael Ippolito’s excellent essay in Crisis Magazine entitled “The Bomb and the American Barbarian” helped me think through my unabashed support for the Iraq War in an even deeper way. My position changed after my reversion back to Catholicism in 2009, but as time goes on, I see more and more clearly my sins and mistakes during my military service. I now understand that as fallen human beings, we tend to mistake vengeance and justice as the same thing. They are not.
The reality is that no war fought has ever been completely just because there have always been gross violations of just war theory in the execution of wars. Wars that started as just, always fall apart in the execution. Jus in bello are the principles of just war theory that decide if a war is being executed justly. Whether it be the intentional targeting of civilians, through carpet bombing or the atomic bomb, or the vengeance disguised as justice when decimating a nation’s livelihood and reducing it to poverty, war has a huge impact on the people living in the countries that experience direct combat, as well as the rest of the world. Both sides suffer in war.
I explained this to my daughter as we discussed the Treaty of Versailles. The Allied Powers share blame in the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Germany. The German people were required to pay for all damages accrued during World War I, which left the nation in utter poverty. The desire to get even pervaded the treaty, and it would have disastrous consequences that would pave the way for World War II.
Desperate people will often look for desperate solutions. Hungry and impoverished people are particularly vulnerable to seeking out any solution necessary. Both communism and Nazism erupted in countries where large groups of people were starving and dying. The debt burden placed on Germany after World War I was vengeance, not justice. Seeking to destroy other countries through vengeance always comes back to haunt us, but as fallen human beings we don’t tend to listen to Our Lord’s admonishment to avoid “an eye for an eye” in response to evil.
As Christians, we are called to exercise prudence and restraint when faced with evil. Our Lord stands before Pilate and endures scourging, crucifixion, and death, not only to save us from sin and death, but in order to show us the more excellent way. Evil begets more evil. We can never use evil as a means of achieving a moral end. This does not mean that we can never use violence through war or self-defense, but it does mean that we are called to do everything we can to prevent wars from happening by seeking true justice, not revenge. If wars are waged, then we must keep before us just war principles, not political talking points.
With wars escalating throughout the world, especially in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, and Ukraine and Russia, we need to keep in mind that our choices have absolutely devastating consequences on real people. Real flesh and blood people, not simply pixels on a screen. Vengeance in the geopolitical realm tends to lead to thousands or millions of deaths. Wrath is the gasoline that causes localized conflicts to become regional or global.
It is difficult to keep our emotions in check when great evil is done to us. I was 20 years old when 9/11 occurred. I lived through that day just north of Washington, DC at a major military target. I know what it is like to live through terrorism. I served as a 9/11 relief worker to roughly 400 family members whose loved ones were murdered at the Pentagon. I witnessed their agony and affliction.
I also know how quickly sorrow turns to wrath and vengeance. Serving in the military at the time, I wanted nothing more than vengeance for these people and our nation. I wanted someone to pay for what they did to us. I jumped on every bandwagon the government sent my way. I was a staunch supporter of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). I have an award buried in a box somewhere for my service during GWOT. My family sent three Marines into Iraq and Afghanistan. Every one of us left our military service disillusioned by it all.
The turning point came for me after I reverted back to my Catholic faith and started my graduate theological studies. When my moral theology course took a deep dive into just war theory, I started to realize how untenable and evil my own position had been. It was even more startling when I realized how much I supported torture tactics as a justified way of gathering information. Thankfully, a no-nonsense priest—may he rest eternal—took me to task in Confession for what I had done.
The evil of torture came into full focus, when around the same time, a Marine friend of mine—who was also an interrogator—committed suicide. I knew many of the things he had done. I had laughed with him about it, even though I did have some limits. What he was asked to do ate away at his humanity. It ate away at mine. I could no longer see these people as human. We dehumanized other people made in the image and likeness of God because we wanted to see someone pay for 9/11.
Not only have I lost friends and seen the scars of war in my fellow servicemembers, I now look back and realize that my Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere found an enemy in me. I look in horror at the fact that the Iraq War robbed them of their ancient homes and unleashed the horrors of ISIS upon them. ISIS was a direct result of our invasion of Iraq. The terror we experienced here on 9/11 ended up being far less than forced removal from their homeland and the tortures they endured. Christians have been in Iraq far longer than the United States has even been a country.
Vengeance is gravely sinful for a reason. It leads us to commit terrible evils in the name of false justice. We forget to be measured, prudent, charitable, and just in our responses. Pride very often blinds us and convinces us that the utter destruction of another is necessary. Vengeance leads us to ignore the consequences of our actions. Every war has the potential to radically change history and cost the lives of many human beings. It should never be taken lightly.
As we move forward in a world that is increasingly divided by war, it is essential that we as Christians remember, that vengeance and retaliation are not in line with Catholic Church teaching. Vengeance is gravely sinful. We must be the voice of reason in a world that is bathed in wrath and vengeance. We must be the ones who are willing to say no; unless there is absolutely no other way except through waging a just war. We must consider the consequences of any war. We must always keep before us the inherent dignity of every human being and that Christ desires all souls to come to Him.
There are a lot of politicians—on all sides—who are only interested in revenge and the money to be made through war. Our political party does not define just war any more than it defines whether or not an unborn baby is worthy of protection. The Lord tells us what is just and good, and we trust in the teachings of the Catholic Church to guide us in discerning each situation.
As Christians, we also need to keep in mind that we often find ourselves pitted against, or hurting, our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Mystical Body is torn apart through war. Those are the same brothers and sisters in Christ whose forgiveness we will desire in eternity. War is never just about us. It is about every human being who will be impacted and the dire consequences that always come about through war. Christ calls us to be light in a darkened world.
Photo by Duncan Kidd on Unsplash
