Thesis: Sometimes only
the gun can stand between good and evil.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
"The commandment forbidding killing was not broken by those who have waged wars on the authority of God, or those who have imposed the death-penalty on criminals when representing the authority of the state, the justest and most reasonable source of power." St. Augustine
General Petrus J.M. "Peter" van Uhm is a four-star general in the Royal Netherlands Army and the current Chief of the Netherlands Defence Staff. He has had an outstanding carrer over four decades in the Dutch military.
In the Netherlands,
he is know from his personal tragedy. On 18 April 2008, one day after Van Uhm
was appointed Chief Defence Staff, his son First Lieutenant Dennis van Uhm was
killed in a roadside bombing in Uruzgan. Van Uhm’s incredibly dignified and
human response has astounded many.
Peter van Uhm is the Netherlands’ chief of
defense, but that does not mean he is pro-war. In this talk, he explains how
his career is one shaped by a love of peace, not a desire for bloodshed -- and
why we need armies if we want peace.
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