The Two Options

I was reading a Memorial Day Post on Jihad Watch that had an explanation why, the Intelligentsia at least, no longer respects nor honors our fighting forces,

Today is Memorial Day, and while Hugh grills the Jihad Watch burgers I thought I'd note that one of the reasons why the popular culture does not honor our fighting forces today or in general is that the politically correct mindset assumes that we have moved beyond all that. Conflicts don't ever need to be solved with wars, you see. All we need to do is understand each other a little better, show the opposition that we are really good fellows after all, win over a few hearts and minds, teach the children not to hate, and voila, all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well.

They then posit a question that to my mind is very valid in these turbulent times.

It is axiomatic in the State Department, and in Europe, and at the UN, that all conflicts can be solved through negotiated concessions. This is so much a part of the air they all breathe that it would be unthinkable even to question it. No one would even think to ask,

"What if we implement state-of-the-art hearts-and-minds initiatives, and conform to all their foreign policy and cultural demands,

and they still hate us?"

I put my answer on their website and then decided to recreate our virtual dialog here on my own.

Why in that case we are supposed to implement the Gandhi Option, I guess


The Limits of 'Turn the Other Cheek'

In 1940, when Hitler was scoring victory after victory throughout Europe, Gandhi addressed the following advice to the soldiers of Great Britain: "I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."
Two years earlier, in the months before World War II began, Gandhi reacted to the outrage of the Nazi-inspired Kristalnacht (the national pogrom of November 9 to 10, 1938) by offering the following advice to German Jews for overcoming Nazi anti-Semitism: "I am as certain as I am dictating these words that the stoniest German heart will melt [if only the Jews] . adopt active nonviolence. Human nature ... unfailingly responds to the advances of love. I do not despair of his [Hitler's] responding to human suffering even though caused by him."


Myself? I prefer the Jefferson Option

1787 Nov. 13. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

You can make your own choice, but I am afraid that there are only two,

Those who reject the ideology of "Live Free or Die"
might ponder the fact that:

Those who choose not to live by the sword, can still die on them.

Technorati Tag: Memorial Day ***Gandhi ***Jefferson ***Tree of Liberty




Tracked to
OTA Weekend at The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns
OTA Monday 33 at DragonLady's World

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