I've been to war three times. The Beatitudes are not just nice words; they're the hard part. It is perhaps better to make peace than war; I don't know that it always is. It is definitely more difficult. It requires the greater mastery.
While in Iraq I would regularly sit down with men who had been fighting us not that long ago. One of them was an officer in Saddam's Special Republican Guard. I really liked that guy, eventually. Why wouldn't I? The virtues he had to have to win through to such a position were virtues simpliciter. The best men end up being the ones you have to fight. If you're lucky, you start making peace while there are enough such good men left on the beaten side for the peace to hold.
In the end you can eat roasted chicken and drink tea while the power fades in and out in a ruined nation. If that's what you want to do.
