Why we must try

The uncertainties of war and the hope of history | John Piper

Whether the timing and international approval of this war was right, some things—such as unimpeded and massive atrocities—are worse than war. (Warning: This column will discuss in what some might regard as overly grotesque detail those atrocities.) It's true that you can never know for sure whether war will bring an end to the worse thing, but it's vital to try. It's as though you come upon a gang molesting an elderly woman. You have no idea whether intervention will save her or just double the casualties. All you know is: "This cannot be left unopposed. I must try."

In Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley's heart-wrenching account of the battle for Iwo Jima, he reminds us that, in one month following the invasion of Feb. 19, 1944, 6,800 Marines were buried on that barren eight-mile-square island 600 miles south of Tokyo. The Americans had killed 21,000 Japanese, but suffered 26,000 casualties. The Second Battalion sent 1,400 boys (many still teenagers) onto the beach, and only 177 walked off; 91 of those had been wounded at least once and returned to battle.