To War or Not to War

I apologize if this is a controversial topic, but I've been thinking a lot about it lately and I just want to hear everyone's opinion, and this is a great place to share.

I've been bored this week-- my husband is a surgical resident and has been gone for 8 days in a row--home around midnight and gone at 5-- so I've been spending my free time at nights surfing the old www (yes, I know, I should have been doing laundry or dishes or something else-- but mindless surfing is fun for me). Anyway, don't ask me how I got here, but I fell into reading some Catholic and Christian bloggers take on the war in Iraq. The consensus on this issue is anything but that-- there is no agreement whatsoever. Some people cite Joshua's "preemptive" strike at Jericho as justification for why we could be in Iraq (they were evil, being led by Satan) while other people cite Jesus's sermons (and strong example) about loving our enemies.

I was looking at a scripture in Exodus 21:12-14 which reads: "He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will apoint thee a place whither he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take hime form mine altar, that he may die." While I was reading this I thought, basically "People that kill other people may deserve the death penalty, and sometimes if someone is "presumptuously" ready to kill, he too, will deserve to die." (that is, of course, a small paraphrase).

As members of the LDS church, I think we've got another 'handy' book (aka BOM) which may help elucidate God's feelings about war. I am thinking mainly of the the war chapters in Alma. I haven't yet delved into them looking for answers, but I am remembering the imperatives from God which basically said that if the Nephites were to defend themselves from robbers or Lamanites, they would be victorious, but if they were to "pre-emptively strike" God would not be with them. To me, in these circumstances, a 'pre-emptive strike' by the Nephites would have been the outward action of malicious intent and hatred-- thus the 'no support' dictum from God.

Anyway, I am going to go back and look at these scriptures and try to find some answers because on one hand, I really thought Saddam was so wicked and working towards goals of killing others for gain, while on the other-- I am not sure America was in imminent danger when we went into Iraq. Were we justified in our actions?

I would like to open this up to friendly and doctrinal discussion and hopefully we can learn something from each other. In the end, we might not figure out if war was justified or not, but at least we will learn something, I hope!