Resisting the Evil of War in the Name of Peace

Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine has unleashed the violence of war on an otherwise peaceful Europe evoking serious concerns about how the U.S. and NATO nations should help defend democracies from unwarranted aggression by a military superpower with nuclear capabilities. Once again, we are witnessing innocent civilians being killed and maimed and their homes and livelihoods being destroyed by a strong-man fascist whose actions are reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia that led to the horrors of World War II. As was the case in 1939, there is no justification for this act of war other than the nationalistic desire of Russia’s Putin to reclaim regions there were once part of the Soviet Union.  A political tyrant like Putin who is obsessed with power while feigning insecurity about weaker surrounding democracies is now guilty of unmitigated war crimes for unleashing an overwhelming act of violence against a sovereign neighboring nation and suddenly upending a peaceful world order.
Putin’s premeditated aggression against Ukraine has generated for many of us both moral outrage and economic and political consternation over the impact this war will likely have on the health of the global community. Our moral outrage grows out of the realization that war always inflicts enormous suffering on the innocent and the most vulnerable populations who have no way of escaping the violence. The massive violence and destruction that this unprovoked war has created also challenges our ethical commitment to live in peace with others and raises the issue of how we can resist the evil of violent aggressors without escalating more violence. Now that diplomacy has failed to prevent a war, what should our nation and other democratic nations do to help Ukraine defend itself against an unwelcomed Russian take-over? Our moral calculus also has to measure what steps we can take to protect the innocent, stop the aggression, and restore peace without exacerbating the current warfare on a larger scale by attempting to counter military power with greater military power. In this situation, international appeals for peaceful negotiations, prayers for the victims of the violence, enacting more economic sanctions against Russia, and calls for international unity all seem rather impotent to bring an end to the violence of this war being waged against Ukraine by Russia.  At the moment, these non-escalating actions constitute about the only legitimate responses that peacemakers are now willing to utilize in hopes of bringing an end to the bombing and warfare being inflicted upon Ukraine. Otherwise, we must prepare to aid the victims of the violence of this unnecessary war and unite with other nations to protect democratic principles and restore a trampled Ukraine if we can. My own prayer is for the world community to unite together to issue a strong international condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s violation of peace agreements and for the United Nations to call for his resignation as the President of Russia because he is now clearly a warmonger that the world can no longer tolerate.  At some point, NATO and the larger international community may have to supply Ukraine with the weapons needed to defend themselves against the unjustified atrocities being exercised against Ukraine by Putin’s military forces.