Re: OT - Memorial Day

Grandpa Chuck wrote:
I was thinking that if we put as much money and attention and status
into the Peace Corps as we do into the military, how different our
relationships with the rest of the world might be.
You're right - we'd all be slaves.

Did you ever see the movie "Red Dawn?" I think it hits pretty close to
what we as a people would do if we were ever invaded by a foreign
power.

Yes, I saw the movie, and I think you're kidding yourself. Between
the political Left constantly trying to disarm and neuter the
citizenry, the limp wristed universities teaching people that
violence is always wrong in every case no matter what the provocation,
and people more worried about who won "American Idol" than why we
won the American Revolution, I seriously doubt this nation has the
gumption to do much more than complain about how cold their $6 latte
was served.

Ask around - see how many of your friends, neighbors, and family
have read through any of the founding documents of their
country within, say, the last 5 years ... it's depressing.


Didn't someone write about beating swords into plowshares and some other
weapon into pruning hooks? Seems like a pretty good idea to me.
It is an absolutely terrific idea. It is just utterly unworkable
when you have evil regimes in N. Korea, Iran, Russia, Cuba, Venuzuela,
etc.

Did you happen to see Eisenhower's speech about the
industrial/military establishment. It seems the five star general who
commanded our troops in Europe knew more about what we had to look
forward to then any of us did. This country has been on a war footing
ever since WWII in order to keep our economy going and order to enrich
the people Ike was talking about.

I happen to be painfully familiar with the cold war and you are
delusional. The Soviets and their proxies (Angola, Cuba, etc.)
were a very real threat to Western Europe and the planet as a whole.
Yes, Ike had a point about how the military-industrial complex
would be corrupive, but that doesn't change the fact that this
war footing you complain about is the only thing that kept the
cold war from becoming a hot war.



What if national service were about teaching and healing and helping
farmers and the like instead of carrying guns and shooting people. Hard
to do now after we've been buying into the "war is useful or at least
necessary" lie for so long, but I think we can still turn it around.

You live in an imaginary world. Go live somewhere other than the comfort
of the USA (protected by its military) and get back to us on how much
"healing" there is around the world where the leaders are despots and
tin pot dictators. I abhor violence. But it is a necessary component
of freedom in the real world...

Your last statements there contradict what you have said.

It is entirely consistent. "Peace" and "Freedom" are not synonymous
except among people who've never stopped to think about it or are
terminally naive. Freedom is not the default state of humanity.
Most of human history is characterized by oppression of the many
by the few. The achieve and then maintain freedom it is often
necessary to resort to force - against those who who deny freedom
and once again institute the rule of the few over the many at the
point of their sword. This is distasteful, but very much
a matter of reality. For myself, I'll take freedom over peace
any day. Peace without freedom is an illusion and always leads
to enslavement...


PP


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Tim Daneliuk tundra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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