Kelly: In the face of such evil, pacifism is immoral

SeattleTimes ^ | 26 Sept. 2001 | Michael Kelly

[flamefront]

With us or against us. The pacificist disingenuously says he or she is against all fighting -- the implicit support of terrorists is obvious except to them. Ask them what have they done to stop further attacks. Are they putting their bodies infront of the speeding airplane? Got that, phil donohue?

Pacifism is evil, by this logic.

[TrueBeliever9]

As Granny always said: "Ain't nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines and dead possums!"

The people should be supporting the people who are ensuring their freedoms!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks, this was to me the most important part of this good article:

In 1942, George Orwell wrote, in Partisan Review, this of Great Britain's pacifists:

"Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.'"

As we see the organized efforts of the so called peace or Antiwar.com side, these simple words of Orwell should be a standard response to all of their treason attempts. This is how they stopped us in the Viet Nam war, which resulted in the slaughter of millions after we left Nam!

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Pacifists like Phil Donahue take notice. You are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

[WriteOn]

What's that say about the religious in this country: priests, nuns, bishops, ministers, etc. It's a ridiculous slam at those who hold strong religious convictions to claim that they are therefore pro-terrorist.

bite me.

[jimkress]

It's easy to be a pacifist in a country sworn to protect you from violence.

[VA Voter]

Well written.

[Straight Vermonter]

If you are for not doing this, you are for allowing the terrorists to continue their attacks on America. You are saying, in fact: I believe that it is better to allow more Americans — perhaps a great many more — to be murdered than to capture or kill the murderers.

Well said. It is perhaps fortuitous that, if this attack had to come, that it came now and woke us up to the true danger of terrorism before they had weapons of mass destruction to use against us.

[Egregious Philbin]

Phil Donahue wasn't advocating pacifism, he was speaking out against indiscriminate bombing, and supports a cautious deployment of ground troops, if it must come to that.

[Hugin]

Pacifism is evil, by this logic.

Yes, not only EVIL but COWARDLY too. Not necesarrily because those who expouse it are physical cowards--some may be, but others are not: but because it is MORAL COWARDICE that provides a convenient absolute that allows pacifists not only to avoid facing responsibility for their actions (or inaction), but to feel MORALLY SUPERIOR while doing so.

[ObfusGate]

Kelly is pretty close here, I think. But...

Where a thoroughgoing pacifism really breaks down, in my opinion, is that it devalues human life. If the lives of one's own family, one's own neighbors and one's own countrymen are not worth fighting for, then what is. John Lennon was wrong, there are things worth living and dying for.

Of course, coming from the same liberal left that argues that a fetus is not a human, the pacifist's effort to further devalue human life is no big surprise.

Just a note here, because to be fair, I personally believe that a 'My country right or wrong' attitude is just as demeaning to human life because it places ideology over human life. Sometimes our country is flat wrong and that is why from time to time we must stand up and say so. But in this case, the wrong position, yes the immoral postion, for our country to take would be for us to do nothing. We must respond and we must respond with all the force that is necessary to take a stand for the 7,000 souls who died as victims of this terrible evil.

A failure to respond would be to say that those 7,000 people were really of no value. When the God of the universe died on a cross for those 7,000 people He made the ultimate statement regarding the value of human life. If we fail to act it may well be that we are denying Him.

[ohioman]

Phil Donospew is a liberal pacifist idiot.... Is he your idol?

[DrewsDad]

To not fight in this instance is to let the attackers live to attack and murder again; to be a pacifist in this instance is to accept and, in practice, support this outcome.

[DJ MacWoW]

What's that say about the religious in this country: priests, nuns, bishops, ministers, etc. It's a ridiculous slam at those who hold strong religious convictions to claim that they are therefore pro-terrorist.

Sorry but this is quite a leap in logic. None of my friends who love Jesus think we should ignore this attack. They are differentiating between revenge and justice. Revenge is wrong. Justice is righteous.

bite me.

No thanks.

[flamefront]

Well put.

Making the right decision requires action.

[Hidy]

Pacifists like Jesus and Ghandi take notice. You are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

[Egregious Philbin]

I can see you've really thought it through. I was watching O'Reilly last night, I heard what Donahue said, and I reported it. No amount of smear can change the fact that he advocated restraint, not out-and-out pacifism. Perhaps ignorance is your idol?

[flamefront]

By the way I just noticed after a long period of quiet Vicente Fox is now just referring to pacifism in his conditionalized support of the U.S.:

``Respecting our laws, respecting human rights, respecting legality, respecting the pacifist will of our country, we committed this -- I would say -- unconditional support to the government of the United States, to the governments of the world who are fighting terrorism.''

[boycott]

Excellent.

[sinkspur]

Pacifists like Jesus and Ghandi take notice. You are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

Jesus never said one word about war, except that there would be "wars and rumors of war." His was not an earthly kingdom.