Posted on 01/28/2003 7:59:21 PM PST by PsyOp
Appeasment or War. Today I turned on the television and was greeted by the sight and sound of Susan Sarandon's attempt to tub on our heartstrings and make the case for Saddam. Then I read an article about 1,000 so-called historians coming out against the war (some posthumously). So, in response to both, I offer the following historical wisdom on the subject.
Thoughts on The Subject.
In war and peace alike there must be men charged with superintending the protection of walls and gates, and with inspecting and marshalling the citizens. - Aristotle. The Politics, Bk. VI. C.334-23 b.c.
More dangers have deceived men than forced them. - Francis Bacon.
He's learned that terror is his alone,
Discovered he can come for your people with no fear,
Of reprisal; he's found no fighting, here,
But only food, only delight.
He murders as he likes, with no mercy, gorges
And feasts on your flesh, and expects no trouble.
- Beowulf. c.900 AD.
Dangers, by being despised, grow great. - Edmund Burke.
There can be no peace in a world where differences and grievances become an excuse to target the innocent for murder. In fighting terror, we fight for the conditions that will make lasting peace possible. We fight for lawful change against chaotic violence, for human choice against coercion and cruelty, and for the dignity and goodness of every life. - President George W. Bush, Remarks by the President on the Six-Month Anniversary of the September 11th Attacks The South Lawn, March 11, 2002.
Wars may be caused, or empires fall, not necessarily through some extraordinary criminality in the first place, but from multitudinous cases of petty betrayal or individual neglect. - Henry Butterfield.
History teaches perhaps few clear lessons. But surely one such lesson learned by the world at great cost is that aggression unopposed becomes a contagious. - Jimmy Carter, address, 4 January 1980.
My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing street peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend to you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds. - Neville Chamberlain, speech after returning from peace talks with Hitler. September 30, 1938.
I have always been against the pacifists during the war, and against the jingoists at the end. - Winston Churchill.
They were offered a choice between cowardice and war, they chose cowardice and now they shall have war. - Winston Churchill.
When I hear extreme pacifists denouncing this act of the League of Nations I am left wondering what foundations these gentlemen offer to countries for abandoning national armaments. - Winston Churchill, House of Commons. May 2, 1935.
Wars do not always wait until all the combatants are ready. Sometimes they come before they are ready, sometimes when one nation thinks itself less unready than another, or when one nation thinks it is likely to become not stronger, but weaker, as time passes. - Winston Churchill, speech, House of Commons. March 10, 1936.
All the world wishes for peace and security. Have we gained it by the sacrifice of the Czechoslovak Republic? Here was the model democratic state of Central Europe, a country where minorities were treated better than anywhere else. It has been deserted, destroyed and devoured. It is now being digested. The question which is of interest to a lot of ordinary, common people is whether this destruction of the Czechoslovak Republic will bring upon the world a blessing or a curse.... - Winston Churchill, House of Commons. October 5, 1938.
Where is it all to end? To try to buy off Nazidom, or any other sign of moral weakness, would only be to bring near the very thing we still hope may be averted. - Winston Churchill, House of Commons. June 28, 1939.
It may well be that we shall by a process of sublime irony have reached a stage in this story where safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation. - Winston Churchill, speech, House of Commons, March 1, 1955.
War is merely the continuation of policy by other means. - Karl von Clausewitz, On War, 1832.
The aggressor is always peace-loving; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed. – Karl von Clauswitz, On War, 1833.
Danger is part of the friction of war. Without an accurate conception of danger we cannot understand war. - Karl von Clausewitz, On War. 1833.
Combat is the only effective force in war; it's aim is to destroy the enemies forces as a means to a further end. That holds good even if no actual fighting occurs, because the outcome rests on the assumption that if it came to fighting, the enemy would be destroyed. - Karl von Clausewitz, On War, 1833.
The fact that slaughter is a horrifying spectacle must make us take war more seriously, but not provide an excuse for gradually blunting our swords in the name of humanity. Sooner or later someone will come along with a sharp sword and hack off our arms. - Karl von Clausewitz, On War, 1833.
Admittedly, an aggressor often decides on war before the innocent defender does, and if he contrives to keep his preparations sufficiently secret, he may well take his victim unawares. Yet such surprise has nothing to do with war itself, and should not be possible. War serves the purpose of the defense more than that of the aggressor. It is only aggression that calls forth defense, and war along with it. The aggressor is always peace-loving (as Bonaparte always claimed to be); he would prefer to take over our country unopposed. To prevent his doing so one must be willing to make war and be prepared for it. In other words it is the weak, those likely to need defense, who should always be armed in order not to be overwhelmed. Thus decrees the art of war. - Karl von Clausewitz, On War, 1833.
To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. - Confucius, Analects, c.400 b.c.
The principal deterrent to aggressive war is mobile retaliatory power. This retaliatory power must be vast in terms of its potential. But the extent to which it would be used would, of course, depend on circumstances. The essential is that a would-be aggressor should realize that he cannot make armed aggression a paying proposition. - John Foster Dulles, Secretary of Defense, April 22, 1957.
Realizing that common sense and common decency alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall never try to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security. Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains. - President Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1953.
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961.
The best way out is always through. - Robert Frost.
The sense of danger is never, perhaps, so fully apprehended as when the danger has been overcome. - Sir Arthur Helps.
Covenants without swords are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all. - Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651.
The just causes of war for the most part arise either from violations of treaties, or from direct violence. - John Jay, The Federalist #3, November 3, 1787.
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit. - Thomas Jefferson.
If you let a bully come into your front yard one day, the next day he'll be up on your porch and the day after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed. - Lyndon B. Johnson.
The central lesson of our time is that the appetite of aggression is never satisfied. To withdraw from one battlefield means only to prepare for the next. - Lyndon B. Johnson, speech in Baltimore. April 7, 1965.
I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat by the menace of a ruffian. - Dr. Samuel Johnson.
Civilized Governments ought always to be ready to carry on a war in a short--that they should never be found unprepared. - Baron Henri De Jomini, The Art of War, 1838.
The most just war is one which is founded upon undoubted rights, and which, in addition, promises to the state advantages commensurate with the sacrifices required and the hazards incurred. - Baron Henri De Jomini, The Art of War, 1838.
The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. But it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission. - John F. Kennedy, speech to the nation. October 22, 1962.
No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. - John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963.
The pacifist would have a greater appeal if he did not claim to be free from the moral dilemmas that the Christian non-pacifist confronts. - Martin Luther King, Jr. Stride Toward Freedom. 1958.
If the desire to conciliate becomes the sole operational basis of policy, we run the risk that the threat of war will become a weapon of blackmail; our allies and our moral values will both be permanently in danger. The desire for peace will be transformed into a caricature of itself, and become instead the beginning of appeasement. - Henry Kissenger, to the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations. July 31, 1979.
Dishonesty, cowardice and duplicity are never impulsive. - George A. Knight.
To those for whom war is necessary, it is just; and resort to arms is righteous for those to whom no further hope remains. - Livy.
The mere apprehension of a coming evil has put many into a situation of the utmost danger. - Lucan.
History teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier wars. It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement had led to more than a sham peace.
Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only alternative. - General Douglas MacArthur, Farewell speech before Congress, April 19, 1951.
If he yields it from fear, it is for the purpose of avoiding war, and he will rarely escape from that; for he to whom he has from cowardice conceded the one thing will not be satisfied, but will want to take other things from him, and his arrogance will increase as his esteem for the prince is lessened. - Niccoló Machiavelli, The Discourses Bk II. c.1515.
One ought never to allow a disorder to take place in order to avoid war, for war is not thereby avoided, but only deferred to your disadvantage. - Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince. 1537.
For a war is just for those to whom it is necessary, and arms are sacred when there is no hope except in arms. - Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince. 1537.
Pacifism, in spite of its initial appeal, is incoherent. It is incoherent because it both insists that we all have rights--for instance, rights to life and liberty--while denying that we could have a right to defend our lives and liberties. Yet a right is something that one may require others to respect.... Sometimes the only way to accomplish this is to resist persons forcibly and even lethally. - Eric Mack, Reason.
How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit in like manner the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation? The means of security can only be regulated by the means and the danger of attack. - James Madison, The Federalist #41, January 19, 1788.
If one nation maintains constantly a disciplined army ready for the service of ambition or revenge, it obliges the most pacific nations, who may be within the reach of its enterprises, to take corresponding precautions. - James Madison, The Federalist #41. January 19, 1788.
It is an established doctrine on the subject of treaties, that all the articles are mutually conditions of each other; that a breach of any one article is a breach of the whole treaty; and that a breach committed by either of the parties absolves the others; and authorizes them, if they please, to pronounce the treaty violated and void. - James Madison, The Federalist #43, January 23, 1788.
Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm. – Malayan proverb.
War itself is a moral substitute for many things that are far worse. - H.L. Mencken, "Editorial" , The American Mercury, Nov 30.
Neville Chamberlain's policies of appeasement were, as far as we can judge, inspired by good motives; he was probably less motivated by consideration of personal power than were many other British Prime Ministers, and he sought to preserve peace and to assure the happiness of all concerned. Yet His policies helped to make the Second World War inevitable, and to bring untold miseries to millions of men. - Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations.
The aggressor’s edge must be neutralized by the power and will of those threatened by aggressors. - Richard Nixon, The Real War, 1980.
A rational deterrent cannot be based on irrational responses. - Richard Nixon, The Real War, 1980.
There are two aspects to national will. There is will as demonstrated by the nation itself, and there is will as perceived by the nation’s adversaries. In averting the ultimate challenge, perceived will can be as important as actual will. - Richard Nixon, The Real War, 1980.
There are such things as national sins, and though the punishment of individuals may be reserved to another world, national punishment can only be inflicted in this world. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #2, January 13, 1777.
We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in. In such a case we are sure that we are right. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #2, January 13, 1777.
The heart that feels not now, is dead: the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis. 1776-1783.
Some people are tempted to say that all war is wrong, and that both sides to every war must be in the wrong. I challenge that statement and deny it utterly, absolutely, and with all the power I have at my disposal. All wars are not wrong. Was your [America's] war against a British government wrong? As an Englishwoman, I say that when you fought us for the principle of freedom, for the right of self-government, you did right. I am glad you fought us and I am glad you beat us. - Christabel Pankhurst, speech, Carnegie Hall, October 25, 1915.
While flying over France, I was continually struck with the amount of human effort that had been spent in the construction of trenches and other lethal agents during both this and WWI. A pacifist could get a splendid text for a sermon on human frailty from such monuments to the evil of war. But he could get even better arguments against himself by looking at the cemeteries, where each little white cross attests to the human folly which has invariably resulted in more wars. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It. 1947.
Pacifists would do well to study the Siegfried and Maginot Lines, remembering that these defenses were forced; that Troy fell; that the walls of Hadrian succumbed; that the Great Wall of China was futile; and that, by the same token, the mighty seas which are alleged to defend us can also be circumvented by a resolute and ingenious opponent. In war, the only sure defense is offense, and the efficiency of offense depends on the warlike souls of those conducting it. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It. 1947.
History teaches us that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. - Ronald Reagan.
Armaments do not cause war. Armaments are built and used by aggressors whose intentions from the beginning is war and the threat of war. Peace loving nations must match their weaponry whether they like it or not or fall victim to their aggressor. - Governor Ronald Reagan, Speech, June 22, 1972.
The most fundamental paradox is that if we're never to use force, we must be prepared to use it and to use it successfully. We Americans don't want war and we don't start fights. We don't maintain a strong military force to conquer or coerce others. The purpose of our military is simple and straightforward: We want to prevent war by deterring others from the aggression that causes war. If our efforts are successful, we will have peace and never be forced into battle. There will never be a need to fire a single shot. That's the paradox of deterrence. - President Ronald Reagan, Radio Address to the Nation on the Observance of Armed Forces Day, May 21, 1983.
In the early and mid-1970's, public advise was to cooperate with robbers and rapists in order to minimize personal injury. Appeasement, in other words. While this may be good advise under some circumstances, as a general behavior it makes crime more rewarding, A nation of sheep is nice for wolves. - Morgan Reynolds, Economist. Crime & Choice.
A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterwards. - Jean Paul Richter.
Every lesson of history tells us that appeasement does not lead to peace. It invites an aggressor to test the will of a nation unprepared to meet that test. And tragically, those who seemingly want peace the most, our young people, pay the heaviest price for our failure to maintain our strength. - Governor Ronald Reagan, Speech, Sept. 15, 1972.
We cannot depend on an alliance of angels to defend the free world. - David Rockefeller, The Wall Street Journal, April 30, 1980.
We... would rather die on our feet than live on our knees. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Third Inaugural Address. Jan. 20, 1941.
The professional pacifist is merely a tool of the sensual materialist who has no ideals, whose shrivelled soul is wholly absorbed in automobiles, and the movies, and money making, and in the policies of the cash register and the stock ticker, and the life of fatted ease. - Theodore Roosevelt, speech in Kansas City. May 30, 1916.
Delay always breeds danger. - Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote, 1605.
We cannot banish dangers, but we can banish fears. We must not demean life by standing in awe of death. - David Sarnoff.
You may not be interested in war, but war is very interested in you! - Leon Trotsky, Red Army Commander during the Russian Civil War.
It is a doctrine of war not to assume the enemy will not come, but rather to rely on one's readiness to meet him; not to presume that he will not attack, but rather to make one's self invincible. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War. c.400-320 b.c.
To take arms lawfully, first, we must have a just cause of complaint; second, that a reasonable satisfaction has been denied us. - Emmerich von Vattel, c.1758.
Two things, therefore, are necessary to render it [an offensive war] just. First, a right to be asserted, — that is, that a demand made on another nation be important and well grounded; Second, that this reasonable demand cannot be obtained otherwise than by force of arms. Necessity alone warrants the use of force. It is a dangerous and terrible resource. Nature, the common parent of mankind, allows of it only in extremity, and when all others fail. It is doing wrong to a nation to make use of violence against it, before we know whether it be disposed to do us justice, or to refuse it. Those, who, without trying pacific measures, on the least motive run to arms, sufficiently show that justificative reasons, in their mouths, are only pretenses; they eagerly seize the opportunity of indulging their passions and of gratifying their ambition under some color of right. - Emmerich von Vattel. c.1758.
Vice stirs up war; virtue fights. - Marquis de VauVemargues.
People who lose the habit of applying force, who acquire the habit of considering policy from a commercial standpoint and of judging it only in terms of profit and loss, can readily be induced to purchase peace; and it may well be that such a transaction taken by itself is a good one, for war might have cost more money than the price of peace. Yet experience shows that in the long run, and taken in connection with the things that inevitably go with it, such a practice leads a country to ruin. - Graham Wallas, Human Nature in Politics. 1908.
Don't play for safety--it's the most dangerous thing in the world. - Hugh Walpole.
I can not recommend to your notice measures for the fulfillment of our duties to the rest of the world without again pressing upon you the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defense and of exacting from them the fulfillment of their duties toward us. The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary to the order of human events, they will forever keep at a distance those painful appeals to arms with which the history of every other nation abounds. There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war. - George Washington, Fifth Annual Message, Philadelphia, December 3, 1793.
History teaches us that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. - Ronald Reagan.
Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm. – Malayan proverb.
Anything Winston Churchill had to say was worth listening to, as well.
Su$an SaranWrap'don .. JeSSica Lange .. Babwa Stwysand .. Pity Pity Pity .. Not worth commenting on .. pondscum.
"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victim, and he wears their face and their garments and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. The traitor is the plague." Cicero to the Roman Senate
The portion underlined applies most to the current democrat party. Their sedition in this crucial hour of our peril amounts to treason, to a collection of traitors seeking only their empowerment at all costs.
Thanks, either that or bring eddie willers with you. lol
Shoot....I just found all the <font size=1>s and took 'em out!
No appeasing them things. : )
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