Posted on 01/11/2008 6:37:14 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
.....yep, theres old Englishman farmers in south central PA that would agree with you....during WWII it was their sons that went off to fight and die while the Amish farms prospered because they kept their sons out. I suspect that the "Englishman farmers" were not English at all, but loyal Americans, whereas the Amish as just Americans enjoy the same freedom and protection as us all.
When a religion asks you to be unfaithful to providing for your own defense, it loses its legitimacy as a religion.
In times of war, there should be no exceptions for the able-bodied for selective service. Combatant positions yes--let them work in hospitals or other places if they like...but to exempt them from government service because of their irresponsible "scruples" is immoral.
Interestingly, in early America, some of the worst horrors of Indian warfare (Indian against white, and even bloodier, white against Indian) were on the Pennsylvania frontier. The Quaker/pacifist government in the safe & secure east refused to send troups when settlers pled practically on their knees for them. They naively thought peaceful negotiations were all that were necessary.
As a result vigilantism ran rampant at the edge of the wilderness, and undisciplined settlers perpetrated several massacres... All because irresponsible pacifists held power in the safety of the eastern cities—and they and their precious scruples just couldn’t bring themselves to allowing even basic protection by using force-of-arms.
Just like today in the Democrat party, fuzzy-headed pacifists push for a weakening of our military somehow convincing themselves that “you can’t hug nuclear arms...” The same occurred in Europe after WWI...where war was actually seriously discussed as being outlawed...(and so later Chamberlain et als. allowed the nascent Nazis to flourish.)
Pacifism has a long history of eventually bringing about the most bloodshed.
“... I suspect that the “Englishman farmers” were not English at all, but loyal Americans, whereas the Amish as just Americans enjoy the same freedom and protection as us all.”
.....the old-order Amish in Lancaster and Adams County PA call their non-Amish white neighbors “English”
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