US, UK and France should be condemned fuelling Syria war

By Charles Kanjama

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime

Robert E. Lee was one of the distinguished military officers in 19th Century America. One of his profound remarks, emerging from his 32-year military career, was on the dangers of war addiction. He noted, “It is well that war is so terrible [else] we should grow too fond of it.” No modern nation has engaged in war so consistently or so successfully during its history as the United States has. And so the American writer Mark Twain cynically commented, “God created war so that Americans can learn geography.”

Yet, the most critical anti-war quotes also come from Americans. Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, declared “There was never a good war, or a bad peace.” John F. Kennedy, the last of four assassinated US Presidents, reflected “Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” American author and Nobel Prize for Literature winner Ernest Hemingway explained, “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”

Still there is a strong pro-war counter-current in both history and philosophy. Malcolm X, that icon of the American Black Awareness project, succinctly remarked, “Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the Gun down.” In response to Einstein: “It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder,” we have G.K. Chesterton, “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him.”

French writer Antoine Saint-Exupery brutally denounced war, “War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.” In response, British politician and philosopher John Stuart Mill reflected, “War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.”

This conflict among philosophers on the place of war in society, like war itself, is unlikely to end. Hence the Roman statesman Marcus Cicero remarked, “An unjust peace is better than a just war.” The economist John K Galbraith added, “War remains the decisive human failure.” British philosopher Bertrand Russell noted, “War does not determine who is right – only who is left.” The historian AJP Taylor noted, “No war is inevitable until it breaks out.” And the saintly Pope John Paul II summarised, “War is a defeat for humanity.”

Yet of the modern thinkers, none was as profound or as pro-war as G.K. Chesterton. And his money quote was this, “That all war is physically frightful is obvious; but if that were a moral verdict, there would be no difference between a torturer and a surgeon. There are certain individuals who are too bright to be content with merely praising peace, but who are infuriated by anybody praising war. If no war is possible, all criminality has its chance.” The same Chesterton who remarked, “The only defensible war is a war of defence,” also affirmed, “War is not the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.” Chesterton was simply translating for the modern man St Thomas Aquinas’ reflections on war, and the criteria to determine just and unjust wars.

And so the insurgents in Syria took up arms two years ago to fight a dictatorial regime. They also accuse the regime of President Basher al-Assad of war crimes. No one defends the Syrian civil war as a just war. Hence, one would expect the international community to unite in starving the belligerents of the weapons that have led to about 100,000 dead, according to recent estimates of the two-year conflict. Thus, UN Secretary General Bank Ki Moon warned that increasing the flow of arms to either side would not be helpful.

The recent moves by the US, France and Britain to arm the Syrian rebels, while condemning the Syria Government’s right to arm itself, deserve strong condemnation. They also deserve concerted action by ICC, which was set up primarily to prevent escalation of ongoing conflicts, like in Syria, rather than acting as a historian of stifled conflicts, as with Kenya’s post-election violence.