Crowing for Peace

With sense of morbid curiosity, I watched the American Music Association award show last night. I hope Dick Clark learned his lesson and won't be inviting the Osbournes back as hosts next year... they kept the censors busy with their bleepers.

Sheryl Crow was there, and won pop-rock female artist of the year. Coming up to the stage, she was sporting a coat over a white t-shirt with black lettering which read, "war is not the answer". Later in the show when presenting an award, she asked everyone to get involved in a peace-movement of some sort. And according to this AP story on the show, backstage she offered her thoughts on the looming prospect of war with Iraq: "I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies."

Now, I can appreciate the pacifist sentiment, in that the horrors of war are just that: horrors. This fact has been on my mind more and more over the last few months. If there is a way to achieve the aims of a war with Iraq without actually going to war, I hope and pray that President Bush finds it. But at this point, I have no idea what that course of action might be, and hence I support war as a last resort. Saddam cannot be allowed to develop weapons of mass destruction. Everyone agrees with this. But if there is a way to be as sure of this as we need to, and it doesn't require a war, I don't know what that way is.

And this is where the words of people like Sheryl Crow really bother me. Contrary to what many people (including Crow) probably believe, the President doesn't want war. But it doesn't look like he has an option. If Sheryl has a solution, she should offer it. But she doesn't, and that's precisely where I give little credence to that kind of "peace movement". Oppose the war. But offer another solution at the same time.

Sheryl's recommendation that the best way to avoid war is to not have enemies is, of course, naive and utopian. Yes, we should strive for that, I agree with her. But until Jesus comes again, one man will hate another. This isn't pretty, but it's the truth.