No rational person could ever desire war, given the horror and heartbreak it brings. Australians have left to fight overseas on a number of occasions and many families have heart-rending memories as a result.

My mother’s brother died in the Second World War in an inhumane death march. Fifty-one years later, in the last year of her life, I sat with her in a Chesalon nursing home, and comforted her as she still wept while watching TV footage of his battalion marching on Anzac Day. Families and loved ones are victims as well as civilians caught up in the maelstrom of warfare.

Though war has always been appalling, the widespread use of modern technological warfare means that devastation can hardly be contained in a small area or to just a few people.

Given its horrendous toll on humankind, no wonder people argue that war is never justified.  But there is a range of views.

“It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and to serve in the wars’. Readers knowledgeable in the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles of Religion will recognise this last part of Article 37.

Does this mean that Anglicans cannot be pacifists? In all the flourish of Elizabethan English, the statement obviously legitimates individual Christian participation in national warfare.

However many people today – even many bishops, clergy and perhaps even readers of Southern Cross – when they discuss the validity of war against Iraq indicate a totally opposite opinion.

Archbishop Jensen wrote an opinion article last month for the SMH in which he argued that a war can be just, but in this case justice required us to await a further UN resolution on Iraq. One reader replied by quoting “those who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matt 26:52), accusing Dr Jensen of arguing for violence behind the protective shield of ‘just war’ theory.

A few days after Dr Jensen’s article appeared, Tom Frame, the Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force argued in The Australian* that all the principles of the Christian just war tradition would be upheld in Australian military action against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

‘Just War’ theory has a very long place in Christian tradition. It is surprising that Thomas Aquinas discussed ‘just war’, not in his consideration of justice where I would expect to find it, but in his writing on love. That is, he saw a just war as a way of showing love to one’s neighbour.

The principles of just war are as follows. It can only be waged as a last resort; It must be waged by a legitimate authority; It can only be fought to redress a wrong suffered; It must be fought with a reasonable chance of success; Its ultimate goal is to re-establish peace; The violence used must be proportional to the injury suffered; The weapons used must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants and the deaths of civilians are only justified if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target.

Australia has been at war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq since 1991 when Hawke was PM. Our ships have been in the Gulf since then, as part of a multi-national coalition enforcing sanctions. Through those sanctions innocent civilians have suffered, women and children have died for want of medical treatments and from malnutrition.

Saddam only controls the middle third of Iraq. There is great suffering for Iraq’s Kurds in the north as well as for the minority Shi’ite Muslims who are persecuted by his Sunni regime.

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State – one of the more moderate of the Bush administration – argued to the UN that Saddam Hussein had close relations with terrorist groups and appeared to be offering some safe haven.

The terrorists’ fanaticism means they don’t wage war by conventional methods but engage in irrational warfare, such as the S11 attack. If they were to be given chemical, biological or even nuclear weaponry what would be unleashed?

Yet, attacking Iraq might be the final trigger that unleashes this upon the world. Are France and Germany correct to disagree with the US strategy for disarming Saddam Hussein, while obviously desiring the same end?

Clear-headed wisdom is needed from the world’s political leaders including our own. Christians must always pray that whatever lies before us, our leaders will act justly, and with the commitment for long-term assistance for rebuilding Iraq should it be devastated by war.  Australian leaders must also give continued attention to our responsibilities as a leader in this Asia Pacific region for there are hints of trouble ahead for East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Solomons.

It’s evident that Australians, including people of the Diocese of Sydney don’t agree on whether or not war against Iraq is just. Yet, surely we all agree on the necessity to search the Scriptures for wisdom, and the need to pray, “Lord shed abroad your peace on the hearts of all and banish from them the spirit that makes for war.”

*Archived articles from The Australian are only available at Newstext. They can be downloaded for a small fee.