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A Plea for Peace : Posted for a friend

Question:

[Mr. Solarz'] VERY eloquent speach yesterday summs up the gravity of the situation, and the resolve of the American people to ensure that PEACE is the formation of a new world order, "WHERE NATIONS WILL NOT MAKE WAR AGAINST OTHER NATIONS" (quotation from Mr. Solarz).

World War I was widely advertised by its perpetrators as "the war to end all wars". "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it." –George Santayana. Vassos Hadzilacos

Response:

               The Kellog-Briand act of the 1920’s did just that – it outlawed war.   The U.S., Britain, France, and many other countries were signatories to   this treaty.         I had the good fortune to study "Diplomatic History of the         U.S." with a professor bearing the neat name of Kropp.         He was an old guy, and loved to tell stories while acting         them out. I have to leave off all the gesticulations,         tramping around, and voices.         "One day, when I was in grade school, the teacher came in         with a newspaper. She said,’Oh children! The most wonderful         thing has happened. The Great Powers have signed the Kellog-         Briand Pact that outlaws war FOREVER!’.                 <pause for effect         Well, my classmate and I looked at each other, then looked         away. I remember thinking,’What kind of a dope is this         lady, anyway?’. Of course, I had achieved the ripe old         age of 8 years, and thus had experienced more of the world         than that maiden-aunt schoolmarm…."         Considering how much of "world diplomacy" resembles a         grade-school playground, it’s hardly suprising that some         8-year-olds were sceptical of Kellog-Briand.         Santayana always has the last laugh, anyway.

Response:

  For those of you interested in a short, concise summary of my viewpoint,   listen to the speach made by New York’s representitive and co-sponsor of   the resolution, Mr. Solarz.  His VERY eloquent speach yesterday summs up   the gravity of the situation, and the resolve of the American people to   ensure that PEACE is the formation of a new world order, "WHERE NATIONS   WILL NOT MAKE WAR AGAINST OTHER NATIONS" (quotation from Mr. Solarz). So Solarz proposes to make war against other nations in the name of peace? We will never have peace until we eschew war as a solution to international conflict.

        The Kellog-Briand act of the 1920’s did just that – it outlawed war. The U.S., Britain, France, and many other countries were signatories to this treaty. Later in the decade treaties were signed with Japan and Britain limiting the size of naval forces. The U.S. took these treaties at face value and slashed the size of the navy and army during the twenties and   thirties. It seems, however, that other nations (notably Japan) did not take the treaties so seriously – something we found out on 7 December, 1941. In that case, we tried economic sanctions against Japan – we cut off trade, including most of their oil and steel imports. Rather than forcing them to negotiate, this led them to war.      Does this mean that Iraq is as large a threat now as Japan was in 1940 ? No, but it does show that renunciation of war ONLY WORKS WHEN ALL PARTIES AGREE TO IT. If we eschew war as an answer, how do we deal with nations that do not ? Unfortunately, not all nations of the world share our western outlook on the world. You might as well try to negotiate with a mugger when he has a gun to your head – he’s obviously not working from the same viewpoint as you are.                                                 James A. Robertson — Johns Hopkins Univ./APL   UUCP: {backbone!}mimsy!aplcen!jarober

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Many people have sent me E-mail over the past week or so, informing me that I was a radical hyper-conservitive, and my views were in the minority. This group of people are hereby served notice, that yesterday, Saturday January 12, 1990, The United States House of Representitives (a duly *** E L E C T E D *** body of men and women *** R E P R E S E N T I N G *** the *** M A J O R I T Y *** of citizens of the United States of America) approved a bypartisan (sp?) resolution (commonly refered to as Michael/Solarz which authorised the Presedent of the United States, in his position of Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, to excercise whatever force is required to comply with United Nations resolutions. It is hereby proven, that the *** M A J O R I T Y *** of citizens in the United States _approve_ of President Bush’s actions concerning the Gulf Crisis, and have shown their faith in its country’s governing body.

        Stop equating majority opinion with the correctness of an action.   Most of the senators and congressmen are more interested in being re-elected than doing the right thing.  Most Americans seem to gather their morals not from self-examination, but from going with the crowd.         Morally (at least my morality), war is wrong; all it accomplishes is an increase in funeral plots and lots of grief.  Going to war with Iraq will only treat the effect, not the cause, of what is occuring in the Mideast and the rest of the world.  If humankind would quit trying to eradicate their problems by killing each other, then maybe we could begin to solve them.                 May we all live to see another day.                                         Dan Nichols – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –                                    Regards,                                    Stefan A. Werner

Response:

[Mr. Solarz'] VERY eloquent speach yesterday summs up the gravity of the situation, and the resolve of the American people to ensure that PEACE is the formation of a new world order, "WHERE NATIONS WILL NOT MAKE WAR AGAINST OTHER NATIONS" (quotation from Mr. Solarz). World War I was widely advertised by its perpetrators as "the war to end all wars".

And why *wasn’t* it the "war to end all wars"?!  Because the world lacked the courage to nip aggression in the bud during the post-war period!  We now have that sad example of what isolationism can produce. "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it." –George Santayana.

Exactly. Vassos Hadzilacos

– 3Com Corporation                ucbvax!hplabs!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm Santa Clara, California         work telephone: (408) 492-1790 x 5-208         … it is tempting to close one’s eyes to history, and         instead to speculate about the roots of war in some possible         animal instinct: as if, like the tiger, we still had to kill         to live, or, like the robin redbreast, to defend a nesting         territory.  But war, organised war, is not a human instinct.           It is a highly planned and co-operative form of theft.                 Jacob Bronowski, *The Ascent of Man*, 1973

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –   For those of you interested in a short, concise summary of my viewpoint,   listen to the speach made by New York’s representitive and co-sponsor of   the resolution, Mr. Solarz.  His VERY eloquent speach yesterday summs up   the gravity of the situation, and the resolve of the American people to   ensure that PEACE is the formation of a new world order, "WHERE NATIONS   WILL NOT MAKE WAR AGAINST OTHER NATIONS" (quotation from Mr. Solarz). So Solarz proposes to make war against other nations in the name of peace? We will never have peace until we eschew war as a solution to international conflict. —

I think " resolve of the American people" is a wrong headed state- ment to make.  Did we vote?  Don’t think so.  Formation of a new world order bothers me much.  Isn’t that what Hitler had in mind, a new world order? Caryn — Nolite te bastardes carborunodorum        Author unknown :-)

Response:

   I look forward to a peacefull solution to this gulf crisis problem, though    I personally do not see this happening.  I back the President’s decisions    because I belive that he is more qualified than ANYONE ELSE IN THIS ENTIRE    COUNTRY to evaluate the situation and make the propper decision.      He is more qualified, because only HE has access to the entire *factual*    base of information.  No one here can make that claim. So why did he veto Congress’s request for cutting Iraq’s aid TWO WEEKS before Iraq invaded Kuwait?  Sounds like the President was pretty clueless at the time…    For those of you interested in a short, concise summary of my viewpoint,    listen to the speach made by New York’s representitive and co-sponsor of    the resolution, Mr. Solarz.  His VERY eloquent speach yesterday summs up    the gravity of the situation, and the resolve of the American people to    ensure that PEACE is the formation of a new world order, "WHERE NATIONS    WILL NOT MAKE WAR AGAINST OTHER NATIONS" (quotation from Mr. Solarz). So Solarz proposes to make war against other nations in the name of peace? We will never have peace until we eschew war as a solution to international conflict. — It’s better to get mugged than to live a life of fear — Freeman Dyson I joined the League for Programming Freedom, and I hope you’ll join too.

Response:

Many people have sent me E-mail over the past week or so, informing me that I was a radical hyper-conservitive, and my views were in the minority. This group of people are hereby served notice, that yesterday, Saturday January 12, 1990, The United States House of Representitives (a duly *** E L E C T E D *** body of men and women *** R E P R E S E N T I N G *** the *** M A J O R I T Y *** of citizens of the United States of America) approved a bypartisan (sp?) resolution (commonly refered to as Michael/Solarz) which authorised the Presedent of the United States, in his position of Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, to excercise whatever force is required to comply with United Nations resolutions. It is hereby proven, that the *** M A J O R I T Y *** of citizens in the United States _approve_ of President Bush’s actions concerning the Gulf Crisis, and have shown their faith in its country’s governing body. To all those of you out there, who don’t believe that the majority rules this country: Did you vote?  Did those of you who feel as you do vote? If you didn’t answer YES to both of those questions, you have no right whatsoever, to complain about the way this country is being run.   I look forward to a peacefull solution to this gulf crisis problem, though I personally do not see this happening.  I back the President’s decisions because I belive that he is more qualified than ANYONE ELSE IN THIS ENTIRE COUNTRY to evaluate the situation and make the propper decision.   He is more qualified, because only HE has access to the entire *factual* base of information.  No one here can make that claim. Once again, facts have proven, that the democracy works.  I watched the entire House and Senate debates on C-span yesterday, and the day before, and I have NO doubts in the sanctity of our democratic system. For those of you interested in a short, concise summary of my viewpoint, listen to the speach made by New York’s representitive and co-sponsor of the resolution, Mr. Solarz.  His VERY eloquent speach yesterday summs up the gravity of the situation, and the resolve of the American people to ensure that PEACE is the formation of a new world order, "WHERE NATIONS WILL NOT MAKE WAR AGAINST OTHER NATIONS" (quotation from Mr. Solarz). As an asside, For those of you interested, Mr. Solarz is the Democratic representitive from the state of New York.  Although I do not live in New York, I believe that I would see my way clear to vote for Mr. Solarz across party lines.  He is an example of a man who works for the PEOPLE, not for his PARTY.                                         Regards,                                         Stefan A. Werner — |                            FROM THE BOWELS OF THE KUROWULF EMPIRE           | |   Stefan A. Werner                                                          | |                         Help us to end Ragnarok… Kill a Blacksmith Today! | | ..uunet!iczer1!saw      Life is too short to keep wasting time.             | | ..tronsbox!iczer1!saw   "Mina bimbo-ga warui-no yo!"                        | | ..tdmnj!iczer1!saw      "Don’t dispair; If you’re flat on your back,        | |                            there’s no way to look but up." – R. W. Babson   | |    (201) 478-6052       "Journalism is organized gossip." – E. Eggleston    |

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