recently i thought of something (i forget what now) that made me think of farside cartoons, which in turn made me think of a semi-famous quote by carl sandburg, "Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come" it occurs to me that this is not just a very stupid idea, but a very dangerous one as well.
this gives the impression that throwing a war is like throwing a party. if no one shows up, you're just a guy with a lot of red cups. no harm, no foul. instead, war is more like a mugging.
you can be absolutely determined to not get mugged walking down a dark alley. but informing a mugger of your moral supperiority in not bringing a weapon does nothing against his weapon. you might have the moral high ground, but he has your money. he's won, you've still lost.
it takes two to tango, but only one to start a fight. if i hit you, and you refuse to defend yourself, that doesn't stop the fight, it just makes it one-sided.
now, what if a despotic government (there's still a few of those) decides to throw a war and we don't show up? U.N. resolutions declaring our superiority do not stop tanks. America is the undisputed superpower in the world, the ultimate status quo power. Every war is against us, and the only wars we lose are the ones we don't show up to.
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I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it. - Jack Handey
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stuart Mill
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
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