Cogadh no sìth

"I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war." Psalm 120.7

This is a momentous weekend. I am looking forward to the visit of a school friend whom I haven't seen for 40 years. Of deeper and more general significance, it is the 40th anniversary of the invasion of the Falkland Islands. We lived in Singapore at the time and I recall the defiant tones of Sir Rex Hunt, Governor General, through a crackly radio insisting "I'm not surrendering to any bloody Argies!" Never having set foot in the place, I have since grown fond of Argentina where I have many friends, one of whom I converse with every week via Skype - in Gaelic.

The outrage nearly brought down the Thatcher government. In the end it cost the scalp of the Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington. Strangely it was also the saving of the Royal Marines, who were on the verge of being disbanded, on the assumption that amphibious operations were a thing of the past.

Now we are witnessing the revival of another ghost from history: the re-heating of the Cold War. When will we learn? What will we learn? Perhaps only this: that the return of Jesus is closer than ever and so we have better get ready. Are we with the dogs of war or to be numbered among the doves of peace? That is easier to ask than to answer. What does it even mean, to be one or the other? Best take recourse to the God of peace - and war...