How the War Began - Disagreement Means Death

As I was thinking about how the war chapters got started, it struck me how dumb the initial premise of the war was. In Alma 24, a group of Lamanites who converted to the Lord and started calling themselves Anti-Nephi-Lehies, or the people of Ammon, were attacked by many of the Lamanites who hadn't converted. This is just my opinion, but it seems to me that a difference of opinion, even one about religion, is a pretty poor reason to go to war.
People can disagree with each other without hating each other, and people can hate each other without things getting violent. If this is really how the war chapters got started, I think that the whole war could have been avoided if the Lamanites had decided to just live and let live.

On the other hand, in the aggressors' defence, they did have one good reason to be concerned. Among the converts were at least two prominent political figures, including the king over all the Lamanites. When the ruler of their country converted to the religion of their enemies, I can see why the Lamanites might have decided it was time to get a new king, especially when that king (or was it his son? I get them mixed up.) started passing laws that granted the Nephite missionaries special privileges, making it easier for them to spread their message. The unconverted Lamanites may have reacted far more violently than was entirely necessary, but I can see where they were coming from.

Still, I think that the Lamanites who had and had not converted could have learned to live with each other. They had different religious beliefs, and perhaps also different political beliefs, but those differences don't justify either of them trying to kill the other. They could have simply agreed to disagree, and so can we.

Every person is different, so we each have different opinions on subjects from religion and politics to entertainment and sports team preferences. We can disagree about anything and nearly everything without having to be enemies. We can even be friends. We might have interesting discussions sometimes, and those discussions may become spirited, but they should never come to blows. We can disagree with each other without needing to dislike each other, and if the Lamanites had believed that, that might have prevented the war. Of course, that's just my opinion. You're perfectly welcome to disagree with me.