A "Neo-Pacifist" for War

"I find myself somewhat surprised to be so much on the Bush side. I call myself a neo-pacifist because I do not believe in dying either for forms of government or to have rulers of one ethnic or national origin rather than another. The choice between living under the Kaiser and living under Lloyd George was not worth the millions of deaths in the trenches, as Lloyd George himself came to appreciate. And I am old enough to have been opposed to the Vietnam war as well as to the Falklands war and was dubious about the Gulf war.

"Neo", because if our very lives and the right to exist are threatened, as my family's were by the Nazis in the second world war and as the whole western world is threatened by al-Qaeda and by rogue states, I believe in fighting back with every available resource.

Islamist militancy is a self-confessed threat to the values not merely of the US but also of the European Enlightenment: to the preference for life over death, to peace, rationality, science and the humane treatment of our fellow men, not to mention fellow women. It is a reassertion of blind, cruel faith over reason.

-- (roland@hatemail.com), August 02, 2002

Answers

Financial Times (UK), July 31, 02

-- (roland@hatemail.com), August 02, 2002.

"Samuel Brittan"? Why doesn't he just come clear and call himself "Samuel Jewboy"? Nice try Rolo. Heee heee heee.

-- (pugs@CNP.101), August 02, 2002.

roland, this guy's an asshole. Beyond the typically British inability to say in a few rather than a harvest of words what the hell is on his mind he wanders worse than the ECC. Christ! No surprise we keep having to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. It takes them so damned long to finish talking that the wars are in full swing before just after tea.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), August 03, 2002.

Political Science

No one likes us - I don't know why

We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try

But all around even our old friends put us down

Let's drop the big one and see what happens

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We give them money - But are they grateful

No, they're spiteful and they're hateful

They don't respect us - so let's surprise them

We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

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Asia's crowded and Europe's too old

Africa is far too hot

And Canada is too cold

And South America stole our name

Let's drop the big one

There'll be no one to blame us

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We'll save Australia

Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo

We'll build an all American amusement park there

They got surfing too

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Boom goes London and boom Paree

More room for you and more room for me

And every city the whole world round

Will just be another American town

Oh how peaceful it will be

We'll set everybody free

You'll wear a Japanese kimono

And there'll be Italian shoes for me

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They all hate us any how

So let's drop the big one now

Let's drop the big one now

---Randy Newman, 1969

-- (Algernon C. Braithewait III @ Ptown.MA), August 03, 2002.

Carlos, he's a life-long leftie who attempts nimble footwork to cover his ass even as he espouses views that lefties despise.

Jewish intellectuals who have spent their lives on the left are increasingly hawkish, but many are reluctant to disengage entirely from their long-term buddies.

WWKMD? (What would Karl Marx do?)

-- (roland@hatemail.com), August 03, 2002.

Karl would have used nukes in '91 instead of spending 91B. In retrospect...well...hmmmm.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), August 03, 2002.