(5 of 5)
There are some satisfactory reasons for going to war. Self-defense — and even survival — are the most compelling. But religion, with its ancient, emotional connotations, shows up in these wars like a tribal ghost of Hamlet's father, urging revenge. Religion, especially when it blends with the secular religion of nationalism, fetches back to timeless grievances and can find in them that nasty, righteous "Gott mil Uns" that wants no truck with the enterprise of peace — which in this world is always temporal and temporary.
Lance Morrow