Jacob, myth counterpoint....
res-1 Myth:
The War Party people are courageous; the Peace Party people are cowards. The followers of Gandhi, who took on the British Empire, they were cowards. The followers of ML King, who endured a campaign of hundreds of church-bombings and lynchings, whose marches were broken up with police dogs and water cannon and sometimes bullets, they were cowards. The millions of unarmed East Germans, who went into the streets of Leipzig and E. Berlin, and faced down the Communist's tanks, they were cowards. The American woman who stood in front of an Israeli armoured bulldozer, just like the Chinese man who stood in front of a line of tanks in Tienamin Square, she too was a coward.
I don't recall ever seeing someone say these people were cowards. Perhaps you could point me to one story in which the person standing in front of the tank in Tienamin Square was described as a coward? I've never seen one. Therefore, your 1st "myth" is not really a myth at all.
What missing in your myth is this. For Ghandi and Martin Luther King to be effective, they had to appeal to the goodness within their oppressors. In one case, the culture of Britain, in the other the culture of America. Using Ghandian like tactics against a monster like Hitler would have been foolhearty and cost many more millions of lives. Ignoring his genocidal murdering rampage was a choice many would rather not take. The myth is that ignoring a mass murderer and not taking up arms against him is somehow virtuous, while risking your life in order to stop the killing is not.
Sometimes force is necessary when the evil has no conscience, no soul, and no place from which to change. Freedom rests on the backs of people who fought for it. Your ability to express your opinion on this forum may never have existed, had it not been for people willing to take up arms against tyranny.
res Myth 2:
Only people who believe in solving problems by killing their fellow man, are courageous. Only they have the bravery to kill their enemies, and accept the "collateral damage" and "unfortunate accidents" that, in the typical guerrilla war, kill 10 times as many civilians as combatants. The techno-warrior, who sits in a bunker in a heavily protected base, watching a screen, and pushes a button, and a drone aircraft drops a bomb and kills some people (who were identified as the enemy, based on vague and uncertain Intelligence), this warrior (and the people who cheer him on), he has courage. Only him.
When one person is called courageous, a hero etc. it doesn't necessarily mean the opposite behavior is defined as its opposite. Courage can take many forms, and it's a myth to suggest only soldiers are looked at that way. Sounds to me like a bit of envy laced with insecurity.
Myth3:
Only the War Party loves their country; the Peace Party hates their country. Peace and Patriotism are opposites, mutually exclusive.
Another black and white view. The real myth here is that peace protesting automatically means someone is patriotic.
h4
The War Party has the only solutions. They are the only hard-headed Realists, the only ones who know how to GetThingsDone. There are only two solutions to any foreign policy problem: kill or submit. Escalate without limit, or appease. Be an alpha male wolf, snapping and snarling at the slightest hint of revolt in the pack. Or roll over and expose your belly. Those are always the only two choices.
Must be easy to see those who disagree with your foreign policy in such a black and white mental model of reasoning. The myth here is that people who believe war does solve some problems are narrow minded and thoughtless. While those who profess peace at all costs are thoughtful wise and caring.
Truth 1 :
"All of us have heard this term 'preventive war' since the earliest days of Hitler. I recall that is about the first time I heard it. In this day and time.... I don't believe there is such a thing; and, frankly, I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing." - President Eisenhower in 1953, after being shown plans for a preventive war against the Soviet Union.
Closer truth 1: There are times when preventative war is effective. Often, in hindsight, it is impossible to determine with certainty when such an instance has occurred. We don't have a crystal ball; therefore your truth is anything but.
Truth 2 :
At one time all people were only one nation. - The Koran 2:213
Wonderful sentiment, it's too darn bad so many who profess faith in this book don't follow its tenants.
I hear you. You're scared. I'm scared, too. Yes, I know, you can't admit you're scared, so I'll do it for both of us. What scares me the most, is that your fear causes you to do things that make more and more people hate you and me. Your methods, a near-random Hitting Back, this is losing the war. And you are so frozen in fear, you won't even consider alternative methods of fighting our war.
I'm scared, and I see your fear, and I'll keep holding up the mirror till you see it too. Then, maybe, we can change our methods, and win this war.
I am not scared, because, I'm confident in my country, its people, and in our civilian/military leadership. We will overcome, adapt and succeed in the face of evil terrorists who are hell-bent on destroying our way of life.
The ones who are afraid are the terrorists, because we're committed as a nation to hunt them down and bring them to justice. |
