The Peaceful Reality
By Ari Kaufman (02/03/06)
During the last year or more of the War on Terror, the anti-war movement in America has reached back four decades and cloaked itself in a pseudo-Vietnam display of “bring our troops home” and, more prominently, a “war is not the answer, give peace a chance” cliché of hypocrisy. As most knowledgeable folks have ascertained over time, candlelight vigils and inflamed marches a! gainst the administration are not usually noted for accomplishing much against the al-Zarqawis of the world. Simply put, peace has essentially never solved anything.
Imagine for a moment how peace would have helped the slaves in the south, or the Jews in the Holocaust or even the Jews in Israel today. No one could possibly be naïve enough to have faith in the 19th century white plantation owners, the SS officers in Germany nor the Islamo-Fascist Al Qaeda forces yielding to the hugs and kisses of the peaceniks in Santa Monica, Berkeley or SoHo. Actually, living for a year in Syria or Iran could quickly convince these iconoclasts of the error in their intentions. I am sure they would find it “culturally stimulating” and solid field work in participatory democracy.
As a Jew, I am very cognizant of the fact that a preponderance of Jews disapprove of President Bush and the current war efforts. However, many of my religious ilk have failed to distinctly separate themselves from the extreme left of this perfidious movement which lauds pro-terrorist, anti-Zionist organizations like International A.N.S.W.E.R. and United for Peace Justice. Many are under the incredibly erroneous impression that these groups are peace organizations, too. Seemingly, such credulous people might want to open their eyes past the front page of the Washington Post or a Steven Spielberg film once in awhile. These anti-American networks are pro-violent, yet disguised – cleverly it appears - as purveyors of peace.
No one I know likes war, and most everyone wants peace. There just happens to be some obstacles to the serene utopia we all desire. Unfortunately, many of us are apparently not willing to tackle those obstacles and instead choose to castigate brave others who are trying to overcome them on our country’s behalf.
Many left-wingers deduce that violence begets violence. Perhaps this is true, unless you engage in combat and emerge victorious, totally annih! ilating the enemy. The United States proved this when we obliterated Germany and Japan 60 years ago. Once they were completely incapacitated, these rogue nations surrendered. That is the only strategy to implement during momentous wars, and it is the strategy that “embattled” President Bush has sought from the onset in avenging 9/11 and combating terrorism.
The “give peace a chanc! e” crowds are ignorant or oblivious to the facts that show hundreds of thousands dying in past wars to enable them to thrive in peace as they now know it. These groups are fond of using the examples of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi as evidence of peaceful protest to end conflict. However, this is clearly inapposite to our current situation as we fight these foolhardy heathens. The ways of King, Gandhi and their sort only worked where there were civilized Anglo Saxon governments in power, such as in the United Kingdom, the United States or to some extent South Africa.
To put Gandhi’s aim and vision versus the Japanese Imperial Army of the 1940s would have him and his followers in terminal peril on the spot. Martin Luther King’s actions versus the Soviet Russians or Nazi Germany would yield similar catastrophic results. Versus Saddam Hussein? Sadly, we tragically saw this unfold pointblank in the Kurdish case. And only the great American Empire saved the Muslim Kosovars from the gas chambers of Slobodan Milosevic.
The anti-war left conveniently forgets all of these instances. They also overlook the aforementioned reality that even “warmongers” do not inherently enjoy war. We all seek peace, tranquility and conciliation. However, peace most definitely does not work in! the real world of Mao, Osama and Adolph Hitler and the Ayatollahs.
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