“Give peace a chance” may sound nice in a song, but it is not a viable policy in the real world.  Slavery is not peace.  Submission to evil is not peace.  Those two things are the result of appeasement.  As the world discovered in Munich in 1939, “peace in our time” is a fatal illusion.  It is as absurd as the “Lazy Girl” on Tik-Tok, who, as do so many, reputedly expects wealth without effort.  Sustained freedom requires hard work, sacrifice, and frequently war.

Reality check: War is brutal.  There is no way around that.  To those who say that is not civilized, I say that if so, then, to interpret Orwell, civilization depends on uncivilized men, doing uncivilized things.

Of course it’s not fair.  War is not about fairness; it is about survival.  It’s not fair to equate genuine freedom fighters with terrorists, nor soldiers with murderers.  Propagandists deliberately employ such dishonesty in the furtherance of their illicit goals.

Even when wars are fought between two civilized nations — let’s say Britain and Argentina in 1982 — the horrors are dreadful.  At least, however, such horrors tend to be confined to the battlefield.

Wars between civilized nations and barbaric hordes, on the other hand, are not confined.  When the barbarians specifically target helpless children, when in addition to that they employ deliberate cruelty, when they kill gleefully, then there cannot be peace.  There cannot be “proportional response.”

Were Israel seeking revenge, it would simply rampage.  It would not warn civilians to evacuate the war zone, a zone from which Hamas launches missiles.  It would target the hospitals and schools, where Hamas stores weapons and explosives.

Israel is in a war of survival.  Its detractors know that.  They seek its destruction.  They openly declare their intentions.

There is no point in belaboring this.  The enemy is single-minded.  Its allies have chosen their side.  To use an iconic phrase, “this means war.”

If we, who love freedom, who worship God, do not also choose our side, then we are feckless observers who, when war comes to us, will surrender everything we hold dear, in the vain hope that somehow, we will be spared.

We won’t.

Image via Pxhere.