I agree, I don’t think it is necessarily a sin to be a soldier. After all, confirmed Catholics were once known as “soldiers for Christ.” But even to become and to be a member in the American armed services, I don’t think that is necessarily a sin.
I also don’t think it’s necessarily a sin to kill a person. “Thou shalt not murder” is how I think the 5th commandment puts it, emphasis mine.
I think it’s possible to live a holy life while serving as a soldier, with the killing that that may imply, in the service of a nation or power that is waging an unjust war. This is what a friend explained to me.
Pearl Harbor did not happen on 9/11. Pearl Harbor preceded the American involvement in WWII – and four years after Pearl Harbor, the enemy formally surrendered! Did we see any formal surrender from Al Qaeda or the Taliban after four years of war in Afghanistan? No. We were and we are dealing with two different enemies.
One recalls this from the New Testament:
" And the centurion making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. 9For I also am a man subject to authority, having under me soldiers; and I say to this, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh, and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10And Jesus hearing this, marvelled; and said to them that followed him: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel."
We say approximately the same thing right before Communion in every Mass, and it was uttered by a Roman army officer. “Lord I am not worthy that thou should enter under my roof…” And Jesus remarked that He had not found so great a faith in all of Israel.
Jesus did not tell the Centurion to stop being a soldier, and the Roman army was renowned for its brutality. When asked what they, as soldiers, should do, Jesus said:
“And persons engaged in military service also asked him saying, And we, what should we do? And he said to them, Oppress no one, nor accuse falsely, and be satisfied with your pay.”
As Catholics, we can be pacifist as individuals if we want. But we have no right at all to tell others they must be pacifists too. The Church doesn’t teach that, because Jesus didn’t.
Personally, as regards the Iraq and Af/Pak wars, I take the opposite view to that of some. In my view, we had no business doing anything other than punishing the Taliban and then leaving, telling them we would come back and do worse if they harmed our people again. Why? Because you can’t build a nation out of utterly disparate people who despise each other and have one foot in the 8th century A.D. and the other in the 8th Century B.C.
Iraq, on the other hand, was far more sophisticated, with a literate people and economic infrastructure. It also had a leader who killed about a million people and, like Assad probably will be, would probably have been deposed violently sooner or later anyway.
And Al Quaeda did give up in Iraq. Osama Bin Ladin himself said so, and told his fighters to stand down because our forces were too strong. Its offshoot, ISIS, moved its operations to Syria, where we weren’t, and where a ruler just like Saddam Hussein governed. It wasn’t going into Iraq that was the moral failing, it was leaving when we did.
