There Never Was a Good War or a Bad Peace

The expression of our title once coined by the famous Benjamin Franklin contains really much food for thought. It is true we are not supposed to go to war except only for self-defense. Violence is not supposed to be applied for the sake of forcing others to do what we want. Besides in wars there is an irreparable loss of human lives. That’s precisely God’s 5th commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.” The more mature and educated societies do not have recourse to war to obtain their goals. Why? Because you cannot pay equitably for the loss of one life. Hence the more educated and mature ways for obtaining peace and progress is through open and peaceful dialogue with honest efforts at obtaining reconciliation and understanding between one another. They used to say in a local dialect: “Way di makuha sa sabot-sabot” (“You can obtain your aims through mutual understanding”). Peace is what Jesus taught us by word and example. Surely that is what we are to do: to aim for peace in all sectors.