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

[LAURIE]

But Wayne, we all know that all the people quoted were senile when they
wrote these things and would not have written them in their prime of life
when they were rational - at least that is what the patriots of today would
say.  Moreover, even if they were not senile, they did not mean what you
think they meant because those were different times and the words meant
different things than they do today in our contemporary world - the only
exceptions to this are the words in the Constitution which are both context
and situation-free and hence not open to interpretation but must be read
from a strict constructionist perspective by those who can read the minds of
those long dead and know from personal experience the contexts that existed
and how they are to be extended to new then unknown situations in accordance
with the strict literal interpretations according to the strict
constructionists.  At least that is what the Right claims and the
Establishment tends to support.

 

By the way, why did those Founding Fathers who abhorred war so much fight so
many wars in such a relatively short period of time from The Revolutionary
War to the Civil War with all the Indian wars in between and why did those
honored U.S. leaders since the Founding Fathers, who have claimed to abhor
war so much, fought so many real and pseudo wars - foreign and domestic -
since then (i.e., the Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and
the Viet Nam War to mention a few foreign wars with the War on Crime, the
War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, the War on Aids and the War on Literacy to
mention a few pseudo wars on the domestic front which often targets the
control and/or elimination of certain classes and groups of citizens as
active members in the community with any say in the policies and decisions
of the community).  It would seem that the term "war" has different meanings
depending on whom and when it is used with not all uses being so abhorrent
as others to those who make claims which use it.

 

From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of E. Wayne
Johnson
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 2:25 AM
To: Peace-discuss List
Subject: [Peace-discuss] The Founders and their Abhorrence Against War

 


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 34th
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 is more than the next 46 highest spending
countries in the world combined.

In an article entitled The
<http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=KCUZS&m=1fEyIjvupIlNSX&b=BE4wGFl12shZFEAv7
d6_dQ>  Billions For "Defense" Jeopardize Our Safety, 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=WUNesTOxSzzRT8KNQ
XFikQ>  for more thoughts, and our forum
<http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=KCUZS&m=1fEyIjvupIlNSX&b=qVe26bQyozRGWjy8h
cGC.g>  for discussion.

Edward Noyes

 

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