A week ago, when we were going to the Farmers’ Market in Saint Paul, we encountered people handing out fliers and urging us to march on the Republican National Convention in protest over the war in Iraq. I was particularly struck by the injunction to “demand peace, justice, and equality,” as if a better world could be had just by insisting on it. If we are going to get “peace, justice, and equality” without war, then we had better be prepared to be slaughtered. This was the approach of early Christians. By their willingness to die rather than fight, they shamed their oppressors into granting them respect. I don’t think many—whether left or right—would advocate that policy now. While it may be appropriate for adherents of a cause, it probably is not appropriate policy for a country, especially one that lays claim to global influence. It seems to me that war is the inevitable result of demanding peace, justice, and equality from those who refuse to yield them.

I also noticed no reference to the war in Afghanistan. Is that a tacit acknowledgment that some wars are—if not just—necessary?