one of my photos taken at the British War Museum in 2008

As the 100 year anniversary of the First World War approaches, the Guardian has a fascinating slideshow on “Britain’s 100 years of conflict.”  It takes a while to get through it, but it’s well worth viewing. Everyone will draw their own lessons from it, but here are some items that struck me:

–British forces had over 900,000 dead or missing in WWI as compared to 383,000 in WWII.

–Churchill famously said (in 1919) that he was “strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.”

–The Brits sent troops to help the French against Vietnamese communists and nationalists in Indochina after WWII. “As fighting with Viet-Minh forces quickly escalated, Japanese prisoners were rearmed, placed under British command and compelled to join the conflict.”

–In the war to reclaim the Dutch East Indies (indonesia), “there were mutinies among British troops who were sickened by the ferocity of their Dutch allies. In February 1946, British and Indian troops threatened to turn on the Dutch if the slaughter of civilians continued.”

–We learn that 4 million people died in the Korean war but the entry on the 2003 Iraq war does not list total casualties. Maybe that’s because the Iraq war is not really over yet?

Question for British and American Catholics:

How does one apply the “just war” teaching if you are a citizen of an empire which is engaged in nearly a constant state of warfare throughout the globe?

Mark 7: 1 – 13:

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!…”