Ding ding ding ding ding ding…we have a winner…
Of course there are no Good Guys in some abstract pure way. We’re hairless tailless apes, the product of bloody evolution. I can cite chapter and verse about war crimes committed by the US, and not just My Lai, but starting with the American Revolution. As Engels said, history drags her chariot forward over mountains of human corpses.
But … please do not tell me that the naked apes guarding an extermination camp, and the naked apes imprisoned in it … the naked ape who has discovered the vaccine against polio, and the naked ape who wants to spread a version of polio among the infidels … that they are equal.
Or let me put it another way: consider the sort of moral monster who is a serial kiler, who slowly tortures his victims to death. Now are you saying that you and he are morally the same? Because neither of you are perfect ‘Good Guys’?
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Well, we have a profound difference here. In fact, we defeated two enemies, in turn.
But it was Hitler who was invading Europe, and who had a strong industrial power, a highly-civilized people, behind him.
We had a hard choice to make, and we made the right one.
No, I’m saying that war is evil, immoral, and sadly, ALWAYS avoidable and almost never is waged for the benefit of the whole, as Didge said. It’s usually much more narrow interests, and never those interests that roll up their sleeves.
More to the point of the op. Violence will solve nothing. Precious lives will be lost, “the angel of death” Is the winner.
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Exactly; ya don’t tempt fate.
Man’s inhumanity to man has existed since day one; and will exist to our very last gasp. One of nature’s experiments that went askew.
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Winston Churchill believed World War II should have been called “the Unnecessary War.” As he explained it, “there never was a war more easy to stop than that [World War II].” Instead, the world suffered the bloodiest conflict in human history.
Again, their were narrow interests that stood to gain. So who REALLY are the good guys.
Germany - Berlin was a center of learning. Yow, that didn’t fly.
Absolutely.
There was an LA police officer named Joseph Wambaugh who went to night school and became an author, about fifty years ago. He wrote a series of novels about the LA Police Department – one of the tougher departments in the US – which are excellent. I HIGHLY recommend The Blue Knight and The New Centurions. He doesn’t pull punches when it comes to depicting the reality of both the police, and the social environment they work in. I also recommend the later novel, Hollywood Precinct.
The thing is, we’ve GOT to have police. Or rather: one way or the other, society will be regulated by men with guns. Various Leftists have, from time to time, demanded “police out of the ghetto”. Well, if that happened in, say, South Chicago – one day after they had left, different men with guns would take over. Or rather, take completely over, since they’re already there and wielding power. And South Chicago would become like various provinces in the North of Mexico, but not as civilized.
So … support your local police. But not uncritically.
The only thing anyone needs to do is ensure they are properly armed, appropriately trained, and well stocked with ammunition. No one needs to join the national guard or police force to preserve their rights.
Not to get too far off track; but it’s wise to have a handgun & a rifle that use the same caliber ammunition. A good choice is .22 cal hyper velocity. Very accurate & you can carry a ton of ammo. It is a nasty round, and not to be taken lightly.
I couldn’t agree more.
This does NOT mean “isolationism”. It makes sense to be open to having allies. But what does anyone think “Africa Command” (a US military unit) is doing? A huge waste of money and, occasionally, of lives.
That is a start.
But two will beat one. And three will beat two.
If you’re talking about some robbers breaking into your house, yes. If you’re talking about a general breakdown – even a temporary one – in the social order, then you had better be able to mobilize with your neighbors, ideally through a previously-organized Militia unit.
If there is a REAL breakdown … i.e. civil war … then what happens to the military will be decisive. If it remains essentially intact, then whichever side it supports will win. If it dissolves, that’s another story. In either case, the closer patriots are to it – in it, in fact – the better. And you can learn a lot about war, at taxpayers’ expense, in the military. A committment to the National Guard is not a huge chunk of your time. Barring that, look up your local patriotic militia unit and sign up.
The Lone Hero defeating the Evil Hordes is just Hollywood fantasy.
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Weren’t there three?
No. Imperial Japan, ruled by masons, merely did what it was ordered to do.
to learn from history.
To learn who the real shakers and movers of things were who do not appear in history textbooks.
Boy you guys really do like to hammer out the nuts and bolts of civil unrest/war and plan your responses. But let me remind you that as one famous general once declared, as soon as the shooting begins, all plans go out the window.
Of course. “No plan survives initial contact with the enemy,” is the usual quote. There is an even more applicable, eloquent quote from Churchill on the same subject: “Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. ”
But what happens if, despite all our efforts … the war comes? What if your side, to steal from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, would make war, rather than let us go our separate way peacefully, and our side would accept war, rather than remain subjugated in an increasingly alien state?
In that case, we want to have as much preparation, contingency planning, thinking ahead, as possible. We’re a very violent species and have had a lot of experience fighting each other. I want my side to study that experience carefully, and prepare coolly to apply anything we can learn from it to ensuring a swift victory over our adversaries.
And then … as old Napoleon said … having done everything one can … one engages, and then one sees.
I have no side in civil war… it’s the epitome of stupid.
Im sorry but I find this complete crazy talk.