The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

`Peacenik’ logic doesn’t work

One would have had to be living in a cave for the past week to not see all the signs, sidewalk chalking and finally the most uplifting of political rallies since the Rage Against the Machine drummer climbed the set at the MTV Video Music Awards. Their message is the same here as it is at Harvard, Berkeley and Madison: “An eye for an eye leaves the world blind,” “Stop the Cycle of Violence and Hate,” “America Got What it Deserved,” and “War Destroys, Love Heals.” It’s good to see that the ignorant, naive and disproved philosophies of Neville Chamberlain live on in the Academic Left.

Chamberlain, who was British Prime Minister from 1937 to 1940, has gone on to live in history as the man who left Hitler alone. His positions of pacifism and appeasement let the German dictator gain military power and might that eventually led to the extinction of 6 million Jews throughout Europe. His greatest fear wasn’t what to do about the turmoil facing Europe. It was this: “How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing.”

His goal was that of these peaceniks, to avoid the conflict by doing nothing about previous transgressions. He even had the gall to say in 1938 after meeting Hitler in Munich that “There will be peace in our time.” This is equal to a protest consisting of singing John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.” Sure, it’s a great sentiment, but it’s not going to accomplish much other than an illusion of keeping ones hands “clean.”

Peace, like anything else worth having in the world, must be obtained and fought for. It can’t be handed to us on a silver platter while we stand around, do nothing, wave a placard and sing a song. Pacifism makes those who practice it believe that we can have it all without lifting a finger. That we can have a free society that has no worries, no cares, no concerns, and most importantly, no threats. Try telling that to groups of men who believe that the world is never enough for them. To Hitler and Tojo, there was no nation that was ignored from their influence. Recent records have shown that even “neutral” Switzerland was filtering Nazi gold and the assets of Holocaust victims. I wonder, what pacifists in the United States would have been willing to do to be “left alone.”

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Perhaps it was the man who gave us “1984” and “Animal Farm,” British author George Orwell, which put pacifism in its most logical light. He wrote in 1942 for Partisan Review about Britain’s own pacifists against the Nazis. “Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, he that is not with me is against me.”

No words could ever ring truer; for those that rallied in the campus mall last week fall right in line with this definition. Oh, I’m sure they’ve convinced themselves that they are only stopping the potential slaughter of more people, but in reality they are allowing the murderers more time to acquire the tools to murder more people.

So, I hope the new 21st Century peaceniks know exactly who they are to stop us from bringing to justice, in most regards the Taliban. The Taliban hates Jews, Christians, white people, black people, Asian and anyone who isn’t remotely Arab or Islamic looking. They hate freedom, rule by the gun, suppress and control the media and have no regard whatsoever for the rule of law. They don’t even bother to educate their female population, suppressing their role to sheet wearing brood mares. Tolerance means nothing to them. Their Gross Domestic Product is based on a drug trade.

Pacifism only proves the old saying “Those that look evil in the face and do nothing are more evil than that which they are facing.”

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`Peacenik’ logic doesn’t work