Garth George: War's a fact of life, and sometimes even necessary

The leaders of the mainline churches have pronounced the invasion of Iraq illegitimate - which it isn't - and have called on their people to pray for peace. I wonder what they mean by that.

What is this peace that we're all supposed to pray for? Is it simply the absence of war? If so, we all pray in vain.

Or is it the peace that the citizens of Iraq haven't had for at least the past 25 years, living as they do under a merciless dictatorship complete with legions of secret police who, among other things too gruesome to contemplate, encourage children to rat on their parents?

If so, we should all be praying, as I am, for a quick resolution to the invasion of Iraq and the destruction of Saddam Hussein and all that he and his family and his cronies represent.

We should be thanking God that there are men and women in the world who have the courage to stand up to this mass murderer, liar, cheat and thief - whose riches have been amassed by ignoring internationally imposed sanctions while tens of thousands of his people starve - and finish the business started in 1991.

Or is it the peace that the people who protest prattle on about? Anyone who has felt the nasty, angry, poisonous atmosphere of an anti-war rally, such as the one in Auckland last Saturday, would certainly hope not. If that is their concept of peace, they can have it.

Or the peace represented by a Catholic priest and his sidekick who pour blood on the carpet of the United States consulate, causing their bishop to have to apologise, describe the action as offensive and offer to pay? I wonder if those two understand just how much their stupid actions set back the cause of Christ.

I doubt it, for they are of a breed that is not even intelligent enough to understand the difference between prisoners of war and captured terrorists.

Fortunately they are but a handful. The media talk of millions of protesters. So what? In the context of the populations of the cities and nations in which the protests take place, they are insignificant.

To speak of this invasion as being illegitimate is nonsense. For something to be illegitimate it must be in breach of some law. And since there is no law against one country invading another, the incursion into Iraq, for which there is ample humanitarian reason, can't be illegitimate.

War is part of the human condition. It always has been and always will be. Any ideas that war can be cured, like leprosy or tuberculosis, is so naive as to be laughable. As is any idea that there is such a thing as enforceable international law.

Sure, there is the United Nations, a talkfest of politicians and bureaucrats which from time to time trumpets some declaration or other in the hope of dealing with some perceived worldwide problem.

But when it comes to enforcing the intent of those declarations the UN is totally ineffectual, as witness its inability - or was it unwillingness? - to enforce the sanctions imposed on Iraq at the end of the Gulf War.

Only countries as insecure and lacking in self-esteem as ours slavishly adhere to these generally idealistic, simplistic and unworkable UN pronouncements - and always to the detriment of the nation.

As President Bush and his advisers - some of whom, unfortunately, give a whole new meaning to the term "ugly American" - understand only too well, the UN is ineffectual when it really matters.

It has, for instance, as permanent members of its Security Council, two countries which haven't been a power in the world, one since the end of World War II, the other since the Berlin Wall came down.

So the United States' legitimate wish to conclude what was started in 1990 when Saddam invaded Kuwait can be held up by a pompous Jacques Chirac, strutting the world stage like the puffed-up Frog he is, trying to make it seem as if France matters in the world any more while keeping an eye on French investments in Iraq's oilfields.

And Vladimir Putin, the former KGB officer to whom humanitarianism must be a foreign concept, opposes the US invasion while Russian business, in direct contravention of UN-mandated sanctions, supply Saddam's forces with sophisticated military hardware, including missiles, night-vision goggles and equipment to disrupt satellite communications.

This invasion of Iraq is fully justified, whether Saddam has weapons of mass destruction or not. There has never been any doubt that he has such weapons and it is highly likely that he will use them. Corner a mad dog and it will spit its distemper.

Meanwhile, men, women and no doubt some children are going to die. War is not a video game. Those hit by bullets, bombs and missiles get mutilated, maimed and killed, sometimes, inevitably, by their own side.

Many of those who die will be servicemen and women - members of the armed services of the US, Britain, Australia and Poland. That is to be expected. Those who choose to live by the sword take their chances of dying by the sword.

To join the military of any nation is to agree to become one of that nation's trained killers, or to fulfil one of the thousands of tasks designed to keep the trained killers in the field, on the sea or in the air.

When in war the trained killers of one nation meet up with the trained killers of another, death and destruction ensue. And civilians always get caught up in that death and destruction. It can't be avoided, although the Americans seem to be going to extraordinary lengths to do what they can, while Saddam uses their squeamishness to his advantage.

That is war. It is ghastly, it is inhuman, it is terrifying, it is blood-and-guts sordid; it is exciting, it is fascinating, it is satisfying, it even uplifting - and sometimes, as in this case, it is necessary.

As for peace, that is something that must take root in the individual human heart. For as long as siblings squabble, couples belt one another, workmates fall out and neighbours fight over the fence, world peace will remain what it has been since the dawn of time - unattainable by mortal man.

It has to start, you see, with you and me.

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Herald Feature: Iraq