Pacifists versus peace

One of the many failings of our educational system is that it sends out into the world people who cannot tell rhetoric from reality. They have learned no systematic way to analyze ideas, derive their implications and test those implications against hard facts.

"Peace" movements are among those who take advantage of this widespread inability to see beyond rhetoric to realities. Few people even seem interested in the actual track record of so-called "peace" movements -- that is, whether such movements actually produce peace or war.

Thomas Sowell

This is simply an extension of the old saying that, "an armed society is a polite society." It would indeed be a wonderful thing if we could all "just get along." However, that is not the nature of humanity and evil ever prods men toward action. The Essenes of the first centuries before and after Christ were supreme examples of this. They adopted a stance of pacifism before the Romans and their reward was extinction. Even Switzerland, with its militant stance of neutrality is armed to the teeth. They understand that the only peace is peace maintained from a position of strength.