In his first Sunday blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to the war in Ukraine.
This was three days after the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, which should have taught us something about the illusion of “peace in our time.”
Since World War II ended, there have been 285 armed conflicts. Fifty-six are ongoing, the most in any year since 1945.
War is an inescapable part of the human condition. The best we can do is to limit the carnage. Apologies to President Trump, but deterrence is the most beautiful word in the English language.
Wanting world peace is like wanting universal brotherhood or a world without rap music: pleasant fantasies that won’t alter reality. Since Babylonian chariots swept across the Fertile Crescent and Roman legions marched – indeed, since the first caveman picked up a rock – human nature hasn’t changed.
Some will kill for land or resources, others to force their religion or ideology on outsiders. Islam’s 72 virgins often win over “Love thy neighbor.” Words alone have never stopped aggressors. Drone attacks work better.
As many as a half-million soldiers have died on both sides of the Ukraine war. The fighting will continue until Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has everything he wants or he decides the price is too high to continue.
Since its founding, Israel has been forced to continually fight for its survival against neighbors that can’t stand the thought of sharing any part of the Middle East with Jews. The war in Gaza started with the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 Israelis and sickening atrocities. The goal is not to establish a Palestinian state but to destroy the Jewish state.
The communist rulers of China have declared time and again that their objective is the conquest of Taiwan regardless of the cost or consequences. Last week, Chinese stealth fighters penetrated Taiwan’s airspace. Annexing Taiwan would be another step on China’s long march to world domination.
Iran will keep negotiating up to the moment it launches its first nuclear missile. A preventive strike on its nuclear facilities would be a blow for peace.
Throughout the course of history, words alone haven’t solved anything.
The Declaration of Independence is a magnificent document, but Thomas Jefferson’s lofty prose didn’t win the Revolutionary War. It was the Continental Army that made the Declaration a reality after seven years of bloody war.
During the Civil War, words didn’t free the slaves or stop secession. That took four years of bitter fighting and 620,000 deaths. By helping to win the war, Sherman’s march to the sea was actually a peace march.
The Munich agreement didn’t stop Adolf Hitler’s panzers from rolling across Europe. It didn’t prevent the murders of 6 million Jews or the deaths of millions of Poles, Russians and others whom the Nazis deemed subhuman.
The Cold War was won by stopping the Red Army’s advance in Europe and the communist assault on the Korean Peninsula and in Southeast Asia.
President Reagan didn’t prevent a nuclear war with arms control treaties but rather by convincing the Soviets that if they started something, their empire would be reduced to radioactive rubble.
Mr. Trump’s military buildup is his greatest contribution to the cause of world peace. The president’s proposed defense budget for fiscal year 2026 is $1 trillion, an increase of 12% over the current fiscal year. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is a soldier’s soldier. January was the Army’s busiest recruitment month in 15 years.
Normal people don’t want war any more than they want the plague, but disease is fought with modern medicine, not by the surgeon general saying, “Let there be no more disease.”
America should not roam the world spoiling for fights. It’s not our business to foster democracy or stop aggression that doesn’t threaten us.
Pope Leo I is believed to have stopped Attila from sacking Rome in 452 A.D. by pleading for mercy for its defenseless people, or disease and famine may have forced the Huns to retreat.
Pacifism works as long as someone is around to do the fighting.
I believe “Turn the other cheek” was instruction to individuals, not to nations. Had Christians taken it as an injunction against self-defense, Christianity wouldn’t have survived the first century.
We live in a world of predators who won’t be deterred by homilies.
This column was first published at the Washington Times.