First Person: Hell no, I won't go - A fundamental deception lies at the core of the peace movement

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Saturday, March 15, 2003 | Brian Connelly

[anymouse]

Another reformed leftist exposes the hypocracy and lies that his former peers force feed their "skulls full of mush" juniors searching for a cause, who are merely "rebels without a clue."

[wadecollins]

If you don't go ,you just go to Canada until we give you amnesty. Of course, we haven't started drafting men and WOMEN yet.

[Red Dog #1]

Hopefully my brother can reach this point sometime in the future. Poor guy has spent too many years first attending and then working at a university.

[Amerigomag]

lies that his former peers force feed their "skulls full of mush" juniors searching for a cause, who are merely "rebels without a clue."

Apparenlty the sad death of Rachel Corrie will soon be laid directly at the feet of one or two professors at Evergreen State College through the exact process you've characterized.

[martin_fierro]

From the PPG, no less!

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Learn Pittsburghese!

[Utah Girl]

Excellent article. The responses I get from my peacenik co-workers is "War is never the answer" "Isn't there another way to disarm Hussein?" "We have no right to overthrow a leader of another nation" yada yada yada.

[punster]

It has seemed that the current bunch of peaceniks are not even interested in seeking peace, they are just interested in attacking President George Bush. Ask yourself, would the be protesting if Bill Clinton was bombing Britain or Spain?

[Badray]

Thanks for the ping. Good article. And a bttt for the cause.

[punster]

"The responses I get from my peacenik co-workers is "War is never the answer" "Isn't there another way to disarm Hussein?" "We have no right to overthrow a leader of another nation" yada yada yada."

They try to tell everyone, "Violence never solves anything."
The truth is: Violence has settled more disputes than diplomacy. Author and philosoppher, Robert Anson Heinlein, had one of the characters, in 'Starship Troopers', make a famous quote on the subject. Heinlein suggested that we have Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington debate the subject.

Another truth: War is the extension of diplomacy. When no agreement is reached, the next stage of negotiations is war. There was a good line about that in the Star Wars II, 'The Attack of the Clones'.

Of course, I have given myself away as a science fiction fan.

[FreeperinRATcage]

Huh? Do you even bother to read anything but the headline?

[A_perfect_lady]

You showed me your angle. Here's mine. Or at least, here's someone who's getting an inkling

[FreeperinRATcage]

Yup...then that clown Vandeerhoven (or something) got rights to the damn book and trashed something that coulda been great.

I'm still pissed.

[justrepublican]

.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Ask yourself, would the be protesting if Bill Clinton was bombing Britain or Spain?...ask them, were they protesting when Clinton bombed the **** out of Kosovo.....

[anymouse]

wadecollins signed up 2003-03-11.

Since you are new here at FR, I'll assume you are unaware that people post articles here for discussion, with the original titles whether or not they agree with them. You shouldn't address comments meant for the author of the article to the poster - it neither is read by the author, nor is likely to win you sypathy from the poster.

[Justa]

Yeah, he's coming out of it. Freedom has a lot of angles to it and I've never really worried much about what others do with theirs just so long as they're civil. To me it's the freedoms themselves which are the most important. We're all a bunch of small fries in comparison.

[T'wit]

This striking quote, from Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," offers a powerful insight on just this sort of peace marches and demonstrations. Read it a couple of times...

A year or two after emigrating, she happened to be in Paris on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of her country [Czechoslovakia]. A protest march had been scheduled, and she felt driven to take part. Fists raised high, the young Frenchmen shouted out slogans condemning Soviet imperialism. She liked the slogans, but to her surprise she found herself unable to shout along with them. She lasted no more than a few minutes in the parade.

When she told her French friends about it, they were amazed. "You mean you don't want to fight the occupation of your country?" She would have liked to tell them that behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil and that the image of that evil was a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unison. But she knew she would never be able to make them understand. Embarrassed, she changed the subject.

[Question_Assumptions]

"Isn't there another way to disarm Hussein?"

No. If they don't like that answer, say, "OK, then name another way that has a reasonable chance of working." If they mention something that's been tried for 12 years but hasn't worked, well, it hasn't worked before so there is no reason to believe it will work if tried again. If they say they simply don't know but someone will figure something out if given more time, point out that with all the people in the world spending the last 12 years trying to figure that out, no one has thought of anything that would work. What makes anyone thing that even another 12 years will come up with a solution? Basically, this is the peace movement's equivalent of the "unnamed Democrat" that would win against Bush if he (or she) ran for president. But like the "unnamed Democrat", the "another way" is a fantasy that doesn't exist.

[NonValueAdded]

'If they don't like that answer, say, "OK, then name another way that has a reasonable chance of working."'

And if they try to make the case that inspections are working, ask them "Are they working because of the Blix inspectors or the 250,000 or more soldiers on the border?"

[DuncanWaring]

"Why not bomb Hamburg?"

That's sounding better by the day.