War is Not Hell; Hell is Much Worse

While every war, even the longest, belongs to world history; hell belongs to our eternal destiny if we choose not to honor our Savior Jesus and to accept His sacrifice on our behalf;

Joseph J. Bucci ——Bio and Archives--April 19, 2026

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In September 1864 General William Tecumseh Sherman led the fierce destruction of the city of Atlanta during the Civil War (Geib, 2026). Despite appeals from senior leaders of the city that these actions would be calamitous to the citizens, especially the elderly and pregnant women, in an address to the Mayor and Councilmen of Atlanta, Sherman said, “you cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it… you might as well appeal against the thunderstorm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable” (Geib, 2026). Years later, in an address to the cadets at the Michigan Military Academy, Sherman shortened his sentiments about war by famously saying, “War is hell” (Ohio History Connection, 2017).

A report released in 2025 indicated that 2024 marked the highest number of state-based armed conflicts in over seven decades (Rustad, 2025). An extraordinary number of wars and violent conflicts were recorded across 36 countries in 2024 (Rustad, 2025). According to this report, the level of violence was higher than the average for the past three decades. The report said that 2024 was the fourth most deadly year since the Cold War ended in 1989 (Rustad, 2025).

According to several peace-oriented websites (Charpentier, 2017; Shah, 2022), the United States has been at war for some 92-93% of its history since its founding. The authors of these articles clearly have an agenda, yet the perspective remains intriguing given the sheer frequency of U.S. military engagement throughout its history: whether directed towards an enemy, in a defensive posture, or in an alliance with other nations, such as World War II.

You might suggest that I am not qualified to write about this subject of war. While the Selective Service System had been in place since 1917 (Selective Service System, 2026), protests about unfair deferments and an unjust war led to the cessation of the induction process on June 30, 1973, a few months before my 18th birthday. The draft was ending, and I was relieved and thankful about that. In the 1970s, no one was voluntarily enlisting to go to an unpopular war. So I avoided being sent to Vietnam; and wound up missing........

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