What is it good for? Taylor Stewart

"A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace." 

-Ecclesiastes 3:8

Any Christian who calls upon the Bible to defend their belief that war is never justifiable is contradicting themselves. War is disgusting, usually avoidable or unnecessary, and I abhor most everything it entails - but it will never go away. Arguments can be made that war is a natural outcome of accumulated conflict, and maybe it is, but we've taken it far past that. Things that could've been solved though peaceful means have taken thousands of lives instead. I'm only being so vague because this topic is awfully dependent of specifics. Whether acts of war are morally justifiable depends on a melange of factors, and the issues involved are far too complicated to give an all-encompassing declaration.

The short-run costs of war are grisly and involve losses of innocent lives. Because of this, war is justified only when the long-run benefits will certainly outweigh these short-run costs. As it is almost impossible to predict the long-run benefits or short-run costs with any certainty, war isn't a viable option in most cases. But many people don't think about this; the big picture, and what repercussions or benefits something has for everyone - or maybe they just have some ideological or religious perspective that denies reasoning. Though I personally believe that war is almost always avoidable, it is still an "almost". There are exceptions and caveats and holes that make the issue pretty much make your head explode.