[Peace-discuss] scott simon's halloween parade

[Paul Mueth]

Quoted in Howard Kurtz's media notes column in the wash post 10/11/01
Finally, Scott Simon of National Public Radio reflects on the peace 
movement in this Wall Street Journal (subscription required) piece:

"Pacifists often commit the same mistake as generals: They prepare 
for the last war, not the next one. Many of the peace activists I 
have seen trying to
rouse opposition to today's war against terrorism remind me of a 
Halloween parade. They put on old, familiar-looking protest masks - 
against American
imperialism, oppression and violence - that bear no resemblance to 
the real demons haunting us now.

"Pacifism has never been exactly popular. But when I became a Quaker 
as an adolescent in the late 1960s, pacifism seemed to offer a 
compelling
alternative to the perpetuity of brute force. Mahatma Gandhi had 
overthrown an empire and Martin Luther King had overturned a racial 
tyranny with
nonviolent marches, fasts, and boycotts that were nervy, ennobling 
and effective. Pacifism seemed to offer a chance for survival to a 
generation that had
been stunted by the fear of nuclear extinction. . . .

"It seems to me that in confronting the forces that attacked the 
World Trade Center and the Pentagon, American pacifists have no sane 
alternative now but
to support war. I don't consider this reprisal or revenge, but 
self-defense: protecting the world from further attacks by destroying 
those who would launch
them.

"Some peace activists, their judgment still hobbled by shock, seem to 
believe that the attacks against New York and Washington were natural 
disasters:
terrible, unpredictable whirlwinds that struck once and will not 
reoccur. This is wrong. . . .

"Those of us who have been pacifists must admit that it has been our 
blessing to live in a nation in which other citizens have been 
willing to risk their lives
to defend our dissent."
****

demons are haunting him