Comments on: If war is not the answer, what is?

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 21:04:29 +0000

huxley on November 30, 2018 at 4:10 pm at 4:10 pm said:
In the sixties my mother took to the slogan:

War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things
* * *
The problem is, this is absolutely true; but it is answered by Ilion’s quote from Thomas Sowell.
Every decision we make is a trade off, and the biggest problem is that the beneficiaries of the trade on one end are seldom the victims of the trade on the other end.

By: jon baker

jon baker — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 20:56:05 +0000

And how many of the people who think war is never the answer are ok with waging war on the unborn? I have argued with liberal pacifist Christians who have more problems with someone using a gun to defend themselves than they do with abortion. There was a pastor a few months ago that defended a third party in a parking lot from a rampaging criminal. The liberals I was debating with thought it was terrible a pastor had shot a man. But they supported a “women’s right to choose”.

By: Gavin Greenewalt

Gavin Greenewalt — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 02:05:54 +0000

not wanting to be facetious about such a subject, but years ago i would swear i saw a bumper sticker which read:
IF VIOLENCE IS NOT THE ANSWER YOU ARE ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION.

By: n.n

n.n — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 19:36:17 +0000

With a logical characterization, war, killing fields, refugee crises, and racism, are properly social justice (i.e. painting with broad-sweeping strokes), abortion fields (self-explanatory), [catastrophic anthropogenic] immigration reform (e.g. anti-nativism), and diversity (i.e. color judgments, including Jew… White privilege).

By: Geoffrey Britain

Geoffrey Britain — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 19:23:54 +0000

That leaves us with the third category, the one that interests me most, the committed and relatively thoughtful and well-meaning people who sustain a hope that, although war will sometimes happen, they can promote a set of programs that will lead to a world in which war will be resorted to less and less.” neo

It’s my understanding that no democracy has ever attacked another democracy. If true, that would indicate that ending war is possible but a larger obstacle remains; every generation produces a percentage of the criminally inclined i.e. demagogues and an even larger percentage of sheep who want to be told what to do… they merely hope for a beneficent ruler. That combination is I suspect why democracy has failed to become the universal form of governance.

“there are no solutions to the problem of human conflict that will eliminate the need for force… if you hold the more tragic (and, I believe, more realistic) view of human nature that I happen to hold, then you’re not looking for “the” answer, because you believe there never can be one.”

While I hold a similar analysis of human nature, I do not believe that “there can never be one”. I subscribe to the biblical view in genesis, that our fallen nature is the result of our ancestor(s) having prematurely taken on “the knowledge of good and evil” but without the requisite ability to unerringly discern between the two. I also accept that God will restore humanity to wholeness and in a time known to no man.

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance. But if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” C.S. Lewis

But as mankind is congenitally incapable of straightening out the mess… until the time arrives when God intervenes, the Roman author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus* advice still holds true; “Si vis pacem, para bellum”… “If you want peace, prepare for war”.

*An idea first expressed in writing by Plato and in “The Records of the Grand Historian”, also known by its Chinese name “Shiji”.

By: jt1111

jt1111 — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 16:54:59 +0000

It occurs to me that *economic* warfare has replaced a great many conflicts that used to be resolved with traditional armed conflict. Instead of raising armies and spending fortunes on tanks and battleships, expansionist countries now rely on banking systems, oil & gas pipelines, trade treaties, massive loans, etc. to dominate vulnerable neighbors. Germany has now created a de facto takeover of most of Europe through control of the EU and euro, with virtually no military spending of its own and none of the unstable overhead of the Hitler years. When any of the occupied provinces try to rebel, as the UK has shown us, it turns out that resistance is tremendously difficult (and often impossible).

It’s hard to know if Donald Trump thinks in terms of economic war (he’s certainly not foolish enough to blab about his core strategies), but it’s worth pointing out that his three largest international conflicts–with China, Iran, and Korea–rely almost entirely on economic leverage. If we manage to win these battles without a shot fired, I hope the anti-war folks will have the decency to give him credit…

By: GRA

GRA — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 10:40:33 +0000

This sort of reminds me of anti-bullying programs, and their most vocal advocates, whose mission is to eliminate bullying all together. Bullying will always happen, either in its most conventional form or its modern expanding form (e.g., feelings of human dignity potentially threatened by opposing thoughts and principles). Elimination is futile. This is not to say nothing should happen and discourse should not take place. What should be done is to encourage reduction.

By: Steve57

Steve57 — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 09:49:17 +0000

David wins the intertububes. I was going to post a comment but how do I even compete with Neptunus Lex. The ultimate lighteness of Lex.

Well, neo does a good job. I bet there’s a lot of peeps out there who will say that I’m just gratuitously handing out tongue baths. Think what you want. How many years have it been since the knife-throwing Georgian ballet? And when, exactly, have I not…

OK, tell me about the markings on my bayonet.

By: Julie near Chicago

Julie near Chicago — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 02:43:33 +0000

om, you’re very welcome. :>)

. . .

David, thank you for the link. …. The piece made me think of American Sniper. Mr. Kyle was also a very thoughtful man.

I value their comments on their experiences.

And I give great thanks that there are such men.

By: David Foster

David Foster — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 01:33:53 +0000

Here is a thoughtful post by the late Neptunus Lex…he was getting a massage, and the therapist, on learning that he had been in the Navy, asked:

“Have you ever killed anyone?”

https://thelexicans.wordpress.com/2016/08/13/chance-encounters/