Some might misinterpret Moroni's actions ("[he] did not stop making preparations for war"--Alma 50:1) to represent the full embrace of military might. After all, when one reads these chapters of the Book of Mormon they are filled with military strategy and tactics. Hugh Nibley adds a tone of caution to this cultural view:
What kind of religious book is this that goes on telling us who moved where and what forces go where? Why the purely technical side? Well, these are the games men play, and there's a purpose for putting them in here. Why these games? Is this to be the nature of our probation, waging battle? Back to Liddell Hart's statement on why we do it, we mentioned the three reasons before. He thought at first that wars were caused by economics. That has long been held by everybody in modern times. Then he decided the cause was psychological. Then he finally decided it all came down to certain individuals; certain ambitious individuals are the cause of war. This is the clear-cut pattern that emerges all through here [in the book of Alma], isn't it? Without those leaders such as Ammoron and Amalickiah, and for that matter without Moroni, you are not going to have these wars. But they go on all the time because of ambitious men. This is an interesting thing. Why should we be told this? Because we are in it deeper than ever before today. . . . John Adams, the second president of the United States, said, "Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak, and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws." . . . The supreme law that we should never violate is in Ether 8:19: "For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man."
So what is this to us? Well, look where we stand today. I'm going to read you something from a military manual I have been reading, a very interesting manual. This is what we read here. This is since World War II. "In the last four decades since World War II the United States has participated in more wars, caused more casualties, and lavished more money on war and arms than in its entire history up until then. Between 1945 and 1975 was a period during which some 120 wars were recorded globally [that's the world we live in]. The United States participated directly in 27 wars and indirectly in 36 other wars. Even now, out of the 40 odd current [1988] wars raging over the Third World, the United States is involved in over one-quarter of them. If one was to judge its involvement on the basis of its arms supply, then involvement is even greater. For instance, out of the 41 countries at war today the United States is the major supplier of arms to 21 and the not-so-major supplier to 18 others [that just about covers them all]. . . . So what is this to us? As we are told in Matthew 26:52, he who takes up the sword shall perish by the sword. . . . [The Nephite nation was ultimately destroyed by the sword].
There are four things that Joseph Smith deplored. He said you should never be guilty of four things, and they are what make up careers today. There are two a's and two c's. The first is to aspire. He said, an aspiring spirit is from the devil. Satan aspired and that was his fall. Don't aspire. Of course, that's our competitive spirit, to aspire to be number one, etc. The second is to accuse. Devil means accuser (Gk. diabolos). He's called "the accuser of his brethren." . . . [The third thing is] you should never contend. When the Lord comes to the Nephites in the Book of Mormon, the first thing he says to them is "there shall be no disputations among you . . . he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil" (3 Nephi 11:28-29). . . . The last one is to coerce. . . . We give orders to everybody and back them up with force. We tell everybody what to do. So we coerce, we contend, we command--we do all these things. This is the atmosphere in which we live. . . .
Only the Book of Mormon can get us out of this hole. That's the interesting thing; that's why we have it. . . . The world has no solution. The Book of Mormon is grim because our condition is grim. . . . [Hugh W. Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 3, F.A.R.M.S., pp. 154-157]
Alma 50:1 Preparations for war . . . digging up heaps of earth round about all the cities ([Illustration]): Excavations at Becan, a Maya site in the middle of the Yucatan peninsula, provides the basis for this artist's reconstruction of the appearance of a dry moat and wall that dates back before the end of the Nephite era. [John L. Sorenson, Images of Ancient America, p. 133]