Mr. President, War Is Not Peace

[IndianaGreen]

Published on Thursday, December 10, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Mr. President, War Is Not Peace

by Norman Solomon

Eloquence in Oslo cannot change the realities of war.

As President Obama neared the close of his Nobel address, he called for "the continued expansion of our moral imagination." Yet his speech was tightly circumscribed by the policies that his oratory labored to justify.

Lofty rationales easily tell us that warfare is striving for the noble goal of peace. But the rationales scarcely intersect with actual war. The oratory sugarcoats the poisons, helping to kill hope in the name of it.

A few months ago, when I visited an Afghan office for women's empowerment, staffers took me to a pilot project in one of Kabul's poorest neighborhoods. There, women were learning small-scale business skills while also gaining personal strength and mutual support.

Two-dozen women, who ranged in age from early 20s to late 50s, talked with enthusiasm about the workshops. They were desperate to change their lives. When it was time to leave, I had a question: What should I tell people in the United States, if they ask what Afghan women want most of all?

After several women spoke, the translator summed up. "They all said that the first priority is peace."

In Afghanistan, after 30 years under the murderous twin shadows of poverty and war, the only lifeline is peace.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/10-3

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Neither is withdrawing from Afghanistan, when you think about it.

[avaistheone1]

3. Withdrawing does mean that we are not responsible for waging war

in Afghanistan/

[Phx_Dem]

2. He didn't say it was. It said war can lead to peace.

Kosovo. First Gulf War. WWII. To name a few.

He also said Dr. King's peace movement wouldn't have stopped Hilter. Right again.

[denem]

4. "A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies"

And the determination to 'Stay out of Europe', promised by FDR in 1940, informed the American soul. In that dimension, you could have watched it on TV, and argued as passionately as Limberg to let it be and let it bleed.

Until perhaps Jughashvili changed his mind.

[IndianaGreen]

6. Appeasement is what allowed Hitler to gobble up chunks of Europe

and prior to even the nazis taking power, it was the alliance of the capitalists with rightwing elements in Germany, coupled with the weak social democrats, that led to the rise of fascism.

[denem]

8. It started with Hitler moving unopposed into the Ruhr.

The recovered battle plan, dictated retreat in the event of even token French military intervention. The French wanted to avoid war, and applied zero force.

Hitlers first military excursion was then enormously popular. The rest is history.

[mkultra]

9. capitalists had nothing to do with the the Nazi rise.

They where national socialists who believed that the conditions in Germany where created by the failed ideas of capitalism, communism, and democracy itself. Even though they had elements of leftist socialism, the nationalist aspect created an authoritarian principle that puts them on the far right.

The conditions that brought the Nazi's to party where the economic problems that where a direct result of the US market crash. The social democrats where to small to oppose the Nazi's and where only in existence because they had yet to ban them.

[stray cat]

5. Peace at its worst is passivity like listening to someone get killed outside your apt

and turning up the tv because the screaming is disrupting your show.

[ShortnFiery]

7. Twisted! How far will some go to protect a warmongering and corporate Executive

Branch? :crazy:

[spoony]

10. Yeah that's just what's happening.

Except we're the ones killing people and we're also turning up the TV so we don't notice. War can be passive, too. These ones sure the hell are.

[LastNaturalist]

11. Thank you, random leftie who doesn't have to preside as Commander in Chief of the real world.

[LWolf]

12. K & FUCKING R.

[timeforpeace]

13. Reading a great book now in which a god of "peace" attains his goal by killing everyone. Peace!

[David Zephyr]

14. K&R.

But...this...time...it's...different....

[TheKentuckian]

15. I don't agree with this "surge" or whatever but he did not go into Newspeak

like the OP pretends. Whether you think his comments are applicable to this situation or not, I think only a fool would disagree on the principle. I've had to defend myself enough to know that sometimes one must stand up and fight fire with fire. I've read enough history to know that sometimes if people don't fight back hard then the only peace they will know is the grave.

Not everyone can be or is even willing to be reasoned with.