Living in troubled times

As a general rule I listen to cds or simply ride in quiet and think on the way to work. At work I either listen to music cds or nothing at all. As a result, it is easily possible for major current events to occur without me being aware of them unless someone mentions them by chance during a conversation.
This evening I thought I would see if the Mariner game was on to play in the background while I did some stuff. As I was flipping channels, I saw a broadcast mentioning something about the tragedy in Londond. A few seconds of internet research and I was aware of the hastily named 7/7 bombings in London.
One report spoke of 37 dead in 4 separate "well coordinated attacks". Tomorrow people will be spouting off about how England brought them on themselves by following the cowboy lead of Bush or some such vitriol. One can only hope Ward Churchill avoids another grandstand, but I am sure some Irishman or Welshman or Scotsman can be found to catapult themselves to a wider famed by writing about the "tragedy".
I am of really mixed mind on topics like this. On the one hand, I am pretty much a pacifist. Based on my understanding of the Bible I do not ever see justification under the New Testament for one man to take up arms with the intent of killing or injuring another.
At the same time, I hold the rather conflicting view that when engaged in war you fight by any means necessary. I think "rules" for warfare are absolutely stupid. When you are in war you have 2 responsibilities; one, end your opponents ability to fight, whether by destroying their physical capacity to continue or by destroying their mental will to continue. 2, you do this while minimizing your own casualties.
As an example, I think nuclear bombs are one of the worst things man has done to himself and I stand wholeheartedly behind the decision to bomb Nagasaki.
Huh? What am I saying? I know all about the arguments over how many soldiers may or may not have died when Japan was invaded. I am very familiar with the belief Japan would have surrendered without that disaster. I also know this; before Nagasaki, Japan had NOT surrendered. After Nagasaki they did and no more U.S. soldiers had to die.
How does this relate to the bombings in London? Quite simply. These men, whom I disagree with in every fiber of my being, believe they are fighting a war. They have neither the manpower nor the technology to meet their enemies on an open battlefield so instead they fight with the time honored guerilla tactics that have been used by so many outmanned, outgunned insurgencies throughout history.
I don't claim to understand them and I certainly don't agree with them but I do understand their methods. They are attacking the psyche of the public. If they can turn enough people against the war they can turn the tide of the war.
Go back and really study the timeline of events in Vietnam, for instance. The outcome would have been very different if the U.S. public had not erupted against the war. I am not arguing it would have been "won"...there are no winners in war.
All that war can do is destroy. It destroys property, food production, the economy of the country that has the battlefields, lives, bodies, cultures, and civilizations. No good can come from war. The most you can hope for is to provide enough time before the next war for the psyches of the participants to heal.
The soldiers of WWII have been labeled the Greatest Generation. That is a great and deserved apellation. It is also wrong.
The Greatest Generation will be the one that figures out how to live together in peace, to look out for the best interests of each other, to put aside their differences and celebrate the things that bring us together. The greatest generation will produce monuments of art, music, and poetry, not pictures of people getting their arms and legs and heads blown off. The greatest generation will be the one that learns to ignore artificial separators like race and religion. The greatest generation will genuinely care about other people...not other U.S. citizens or Europeans or men or women...people.
When I see people bombing other people they don't know and anticipate the strident calls for a more intense war pitted against calls for immediate peace, then I know...I am not living in the Greatest Generation. I just hope before my turn comes I can do something to move this world closer to that time.