Letters: Give war a chance
Re: ' At Times, War Is The Answer,' Anthony Koch, June 25.
The National Post is a consistent source of thoughtful journalism, but Anthony Koch's recent commentary stood out as particularly compelling. It should be required reading for all Canadians — especially our political leaders and younger generations like millennials and gen Z.
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I would respectfully add one point to the powerful assertion that, 'Negotiation is not what ends conflict. Victory is.' When dealing with Islamist extremist groups such as the Iranian regime, Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, victory cannot be partial or symbolic. These actors will not abandon their stated goals: the destruction of Israel and the destabilization of the West.
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As Mosab Hassan Yousef — known as the 'Son of Hamas' — has said, even if one Hamas terrorist were left alive in the rubble of Gaza, he would rise and declare victory. So the question remains: does the West have the resolve to achieve true victory?
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Marc Friedman, Thornhill, Ont.
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It is one thing to say that self-defence is justified in international relations; it is another to say that 'war is the answer.' One cannot help but think that Anthony Koch has never experienced the true horrors of war — of loved ones being killed, of deprivation, disease and chaos. People who say 'war is the answer' should immediately be given the opportunity to go to a war-torn area and live there until the war is over. One must be prepared to fight, but that does not mean that might is right.
Patrick McKitrick, Burnaby, B.C.
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While I agree with Anthony Koch's op-ed piece in the main, he overuses ideological examples, arguing that freedom and tyranny are always incompatible at the international level and that no amount of diplomacy can help.
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For example, he argues that, 'The American Revolution did not occur because the colonists failed to write one more petition to the Crown. It occurred because liberty and imperial dominion could not share a continent.'
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In fact, the Dominion of Canada and the assorted British colonies that preceded it did share the continent with the United States peacefully for some time after the U.S. came into existence, thanks to perpetual diplomacy, with the notable exception of the War of 1812. What's more, if the Whigs, and not Tories, had been running Britain in 1776, the revolutionary war might have been avoided though negotiation.
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And while appeasement, as Koch points out, did encourage Hitler to start the Second World War, rampant nationalism and military enthusiasm throughout liberal democratic Europe did not deter German aggression in the First World War.
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