The Toxicity of Pacifism

War is bad. Well of course war is bad. What rational person wants war, in a nuclear age or any other age?

Yet not everyone agrees. Even if only 1 or 5 percent think war is a good thing, because it’s a way to control or enslave people, then the rest of us have to face facts. We have to do whatever it takes to defend ourselves, with a maximum of loss to the bad guys and a minimum of loss to the good ones. And yes, there’s such a thing as good and bad. If you don’t think so, then the bad guys will show you otherwise in no time at all.

I keep reading that President Trump is wrong to use such strong language against North Korea. If he doesn’t mean any of it, then I fully agree. We’ll know in due course if he does, or if he doesn’t. I think it’s possible that he does. I know there’s no possibility that Presidents Obama, Bush or Clinton would ever have done anything to stop North Korea or any other dictator, for that matter. All they did was bribe and make deals on bended knee, over and over again. The one exception was President Bush with Saddam Hussein, but an objective reading of Bush’s eight years in office suggests he cared about killing that particular dictator, not the real and growing threats found in places like Iran and North Korea, threats he left to his successors and still growing by the day.

I hear people saying it’s “realism” to avoid war at all costs and simply negotiate with evil people.

Realism is what we did NOT display in all those years of paying off bullies not to attack us. It did not work with Hitler, either. The Allied Powers made deals with Hitler on the premise that deals were a rational alternative to war. What did Hitler do? What all evil people do: Continue invading countries and killing/enslaving people. That’s what evil people do.

Appeasing and bribing known homicidal brutes? That sort of cowardice IS pacifism. Trump is getting the blame for inheriting this disaster of North Korea. Rest assured that Iran will blow up to a crisis at some point, too. Trump will get all of the blame and Obama’s lame-brained give-a-way to the thugs ruling Iran will get none. Obama, the narcissistic incompetent who preceded President Trump is the biggest offender. I blame Bush and Bill Clinton as well. As for “stirring up” the issues of a known psychopath, innocent people are not responsible for the irrationality of tyrants and totalitarian psychopaths, not unless they enable and excuse them, as some of us in still free nations insist on doing. I will not blame the victims.

The same people who now say Trump’s words are too strong because North Korea is not a threat are the same ones who thought North Korea enough of a threat over the last 25 years to pay them off with bribes in hopes they will not ever attack us. I find that interesting.

The opposite of pacifism is not a love of war. The opposite of pacifism is a love of freedom, liberty and individual rights. War must be fought only when and if necessary. But if your enemy thinks you’re unwilling to fight and win a war with the ruthless force required to defeat them, then that enemy will grow. Watch what’s happening with North Korea, as well as with Iran, ISIS and others. It’s happening right before our eyes. Donald Trump merely inherited it.

So far, President Trump is willing to talk the talk. The last president was not even willing to do that. While freedom is the proper state of mankind, it’s not the inevitable state. And it has never been the norm, sadly. If we want to keep our remaining freedoms, we sometimes have to make difficult decisions in striking against those who want to steal them. Like it or not, it’s the truth. And if you refuse to face the truth, you’re not a realist. You are a pacifist.