Thank you for your response, and the place your words of caution come from. It’s a message every Christian Soldier must grapple with. However you assume too much about me. I do not attend a church with a rabble rousing pastor. I do not have much faith in the ideals of my political leaders either. Most importantly, I do not cherish revenge. Hence the words “We take NO JOY in killing you.” There is a difference between cherishing revenge and putting yourself in harms way to protect your fellow man from evil.

I cannot defend every aspect of US foreign policy. Lord knows there have been many mistakes. But we (Americans) don’t have the luxury of being isolationists. We are the country that is called upon from every corner of the world when bad things happen — Tsunamis, earthquakes, genocide, hunger, Ebola outbreaks, refugee crises — the list goes on. And when we DO respond, we are accused of imperialism. And when we DON’T respond (or just wait too long), we are accused of being uncaring and self-serving.

Here is what I do know. There is such thing as good and evil. War is sometimes necessary. But war is always terrible.

I would ask you to read this article I wrote a few weeks ago on this subject. https://medium.com/@davidswan_82132/tired-frustrated-soldiers-4f8f31927d7b#.1ek7hz1q3