War is a burden. It is a serious and somber undertaking. People die. Families are never the same in its aftermath. Everyone is affected, fathers and husbands, women and children, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. No one is left out. Even the victorious nation will be scarred for life by its effects. War is not a game.
When President Woodrow Wilson called for the United States to enter into World War I, declaring war on Germany and its axis powers, in his address to the 65th session of Congress he said the following, “The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motives will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.” There was no bravado, no arrogant posturing, machismo style. It was simply a clear call to a necessary duty, to do a harsh but needful thing in order to defend freedom.
Do you remember how smug and arrogant Osama Bin Laden looked when they showed video tapes of him gleefully approving the successful attack against our Twin Towers in New York City, now called Ground Zero? It was sickening. It was also angering. That anyone should gloat at such an action—the raw naked killing of thousands of innocent people going about their daily lives—was appalling. It was monstrous.
Are we to do the same in return? Is it our turn to gloat? I hope not. I trust that we are better than that? An honorable nation fights and kills because it must, not because it takes delight in it. A good nation is respectful in its victories and is even considerate of the vanquished. It does not beat its breasts gorilla fashion. There is no swaggering or taunting. It does not egg-on. It does not demean and degrade its opponent simply for the pleasure of it. There is no honor in shaming and humiliating one’s enemies. In acts of war, a wise and mature nation does only what it must do, no more no less, all the while disdaining the required killing and shedding of blood that is the inevitable part of the process. War is an ugly business and should always be seen as such.
Furthermore, apart from what other religions may teach or practice, Christianity asserts this: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). This, coupled with Proverbs 24:17, which says, “Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble, or else the Lord will see it and be displeased, and turn away His anger from them,” tells us that we must remain humble in our victories. Indeed, we must respectfully acknowledge that in the end God will have the last word and give the final judgment over all peoples and every nation.
Let us therefore not gloat. Let there be no cheering and breast beating when we hear certain news about particular villains and enemies being caught, captured, and/or shot. We are not playing at sport. We need no dancing cheerleaders. Let us respect the awesomeness of war and its taking of human life. And so, let us not merely pray for a shallow victory of brute force. Rather, let us pray for the deeper victory of spirit and soul, that our enemies may one day become our friends and have a change of heart. Need we be enemies unto death, until one side completely annihilates the other? Must they hate us always? Must we hate them forever? Not if we can find a way to show them that we really are a people of goodwill with good intention and good purpose. Gloating does not help in this direction.
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