From: Jasper
Date: 9/13/01
Time: 1:25:48 PM
Jean,
The biggest ally a bully can have is a "reasonable" advisor in the camp of the opposition.
Theoretically there are numerous alternatives to war. Between the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Confederacy's firing on Fort Sumter reasonable people agreed to preserve and protect the institution of slavery in one "great compromise" after another to avoid war. Reasonable people agreed to stay out of "Europe's" war in the 1930s and to debate the advisability of confronting the Empire of Japan over its war of conquest in China, Indochina, Burma and Korea. You know how that turned out. The alternative we have adopted since 1973 to staying out of war is simply to allow genocide to run its course whenever and wherever "vital American interests" were not obviously and immediately involved. Preceding every major war that the United States has eventually HAD TO fight, one or more "reasonable alternative to war" has been tried.
Bullies depend on people that they perceive to be "weaker" than they are to give them what they want in the face of a credible threat of violence. Whether it's some kid's lunch money or some community's lives, the only thing a bully EVER takes seriously is a real contest of strength and fortitude.
Reasonableness in the face of anyone who would commit mass murder to advance a political agenda is wielding a "terrible swift sword" to take his head off. --Jasper