[Peace-discuss] The Founders and their Abhorrence Against War

[E. Wayne Johnson]

from Restoring the Heart of America newsletter, Fairfield, Iowa:


The Founders and their
Abhorrence Against War


September 11 2008

James Madison, the father of the US Constitution, stated:

/If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of 
fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is 
perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the 
germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed 
debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known 
instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.  The 
loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against 
danger, real or imagined, from abroad. /

We are all aware that George Washington issued a warning in his farewell 
address against entangling alliances with other nations and cautioned us 
explicitly to pursue the opposite of war as our fundamental foreign policy.

If possible, Thomas Jefferson was even more opposed to war as an 
instrument of effective policy.   Among the many times he spoke on this 
subject he stated:

/"I love peace, and am anxious that we should give the world still 
another useful lesson, by showing to them other modes of punishing 
injuries than by war, which is as much a punishment to the punisher as 
to the sufferer." /

/"War has been avoided from a due sense of the miseries, and the 
demoralization it produces, and of the superior blessings of a state of 
peace and friendship with all mankind." /

/"Having seen the people of all other nations bowed down to the earth 
under the wars and prodigalities of their rulers, I have cherished their 
opposites, peace, economy, and riddance of public debt, believing that 
these were the high road to public as well as private prosperity and 
happiness." /

/"I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind." /

/"War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and 
multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses." /

The founders were intimately aware of the corrupting influence of power 
and the endless examples in history of rulers taking their nation to war 
for improper reasons.  These reasons included personal glory, revenge 
against insult or simply a conquest of other lands for the natural 
resources that said lands possessed.   It is a truism that the people 
fight the wars while the leaders reap the political benefits of conquest.

The concern for the corrupting influence of power was later warned 
against by Dwight Eisenhower who stated in his farewell address:

/"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition 
of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the 
military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of 
misplaced power exists and will persist." /

Eisenhower's warning was from one who had personal knowledge of the 
culture of war given his position as the Supreme Commander of the Allied 
forces in Europe during World War II, the first supreme commander of 
NATO and our 34^th President.

Today, America has become a nation dominated by a "military industrial 
complex."  The/ Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation/, February 
20, 2008 reports:

    *

      U.S. military spending accounts for 48 percent, or almost half of
      the world's total military spending.

    *

      U.S. military spending is more than the next 46 highest spending
      countries in the world combined.

In an article entitled The Billions For "Defense" Jeopardize Our Safety 
<http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=KCUZS&m=1fEyIjvupIlNSX&b=BE4wGFl12shZFEAv7d6_dQ>, 
Center For Defense Information, March 9, 2000 reported:

/The lion's share of this money is not spent by the Pentagon on 
protecting American citizens. It goes to supporting U.S. military 
activities, including interventions, throughout the world. Were this 
budget and the organization it finances called the "Military 
Department," then attitudes might be quite different. Americans are 
willing to pay for defense, but they would probably be much less willing 
to spend billions of dollars if the money were labeled "Foreign Military 
Operations. /

Given where we obviously are today is there any possibility that America 
could return to the peace loving nation longed for by the founders?  The 
venerable Benjamin Franklin was once quoted as saying: "He who shall 
introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity 
shall revolutionize the world."  The originator of that primitive 
Christianity Jesus of Nazareth (also known as the Prince of Peace) once 
said: "Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the 
sword shall perish by the sword."  Matthew 26:52.

I can only pray that the American people have the courage to "put thy 
sword into its place" and return to the "light upon the hill" that 
lights the way for the world to embrace peaceful resolution to its 
problems.  Given the absolute dominance the military industrial complex 
now has on our government, the impotence of our elected representatives, 
and the blatant disregard for constitutional limitations exhibited by 
the executive branch, it is only we, the people, who can change the 
direction of our nation.

I leave you with another quote from Thomas Jefferson who gave us our 
declaration of independence:/
/

/I do not believe war the most certain means of enforcing principles. 
Those peaceable coercions which are in the power of every nation, if 
undertaken in concert and in time of peace, are more likely to produce 
the desired effect. /

Please visit our website 
<http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=KCUZS&m=1fEyIjvupIlNSX&b=WUNesTOxSzzRT8KNQXFikQ> 
for more thoughts, and our forum 
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for discussion.

Edward Noyes

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