(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
The History of Wars
There is a psychological advantage to lulling people into a new sense of security, then hitting them again.
President Bush says the war on terrorism is going to be a long one, and in saying that he is merely echoing what the terrorists themselves, and their supporters, said first. For them the United States is “the Great Satan,” and they are called upon to destroy us.
Throughout history most wars have been fought over fairly petty (hence morally dubious) issues – squabbles over particular pieces of territory, without much thought as to why it should make much difference who rules that territory. But from time to time wars are fought over great issues – Fascism in World II, Communism in various conflicts thereafter – when the outcome made a profound difference to the world. My sense is that few Americans think we are involved in such a struggle against Islam, and most Muslims do not either. But if extreme Muslims have defined the conflict this way, what exactly is it all about?
The System of Democracy
It is not about religion, because the United States (and the rest of the West) can hardly be called a Christian nation in any meaningful sense, although it may appear that way to some of our enemies. At the same time it is also short-sighted to dismiss the United States as totally un-Christian. The melancholy truth, which needs to be recalled periodically, is that, despite its severe religious and moral flaws, the United States is perhaps the most religious society in the Western world, measured by the people's stated beliefs, their participation in religious activities, the proclaimed role of religion in their personal lives, and their willingness to raise religious issues in the public square.
But if the conflict is not over religion, what is it about? The only feasible answer, it seems to me, is the political system we call democracy. There is nothing sacred about democracy. If it is taken to mean simply majority rule, it is often, as Winston Churchill famously said, the worst system except for all the others. But in a broader sense democracy means that the government is ultimately answerable to the people and the people enjoy basic liberties which are given to them by God (or by nature) and which no government is free to abridge.
One practical argument for democracy is that, when a monarch goes wrong, his actions are extremely difficult to correct, whereas democratic governments can easily be voted out and the citizens themselves can change their minds. The ultimate argument is that human freedom is itself a basic good, one of the principal purposes of government being to protect that freedom.
Terrible Responsibilities from God
Obviously that does not mean that the people are always right, or that they always use their freedom responsibly. The irresponsible use of freedom has led us into cultural decadence, one of the things our enemies hate us for. But the authentic Christian position, proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council in its decree on religious liberty, recognizes that, created in the image and likeness of God, we enjoy freedom as the essence of our dignity and worth. There is no real good or evil if there is no freedom.
This does not of course mean that we are obliged to tolerate all the bad things in our culture, such as abortion or “assisted suicide,” which do serious harm to people. Until very recently, no one thought that democracy implied any such thing. For the Taliban the solution to the abuse of freedom is simply to deny its use. We are fighting for a system in which we must assume the terrible responsibilities which God has laid on our shoulders. We are confronted, every day in every way, with the necessity of making decisions which are at the same time both free and obedient to the will of God.
