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Pacifism is disguised timidity I am beginning to feel like my father during the Vietnam War, though as yet there are no puffs of smoke emitting from my ears, and the top of my head does not lift off, twirl around and settle down again. But then I am not watching TV accompanied by rye and soda, and noisy, uninformed pacifist children. But just about every sensible person I know does not hesitate to corral me and inform me that going to war is a stupid thing to do, just what they'd expect of such a stupid man as George Bush. I say nothing -- it would be pissing in the wind, besides they know I love George W. Bush and think he gets better every month -- no use in wasting precious energy. The man speaks for himself, knocking off every problem with particular grace and ease, this last week crowning his administration's policy. So, I leave the top of my head on, and head for Toronto and notice on the way that there is more than one church in Victoria which touts "peacefulness" as its virtue of the week. I shrug. Liberal pacifism is the moral position of honour these days, and we are all liberals, or would-be liberals, because anyone on the right is almost certainly not well-educated, hates people of colour, and women, and furthermore, has a screw loose. That would certainly be me. Or if that is what you have to be to be a conservative, I'm certainly willing to toss seven years of university down the drain, and pretend to hate everyone that moves. Because I think that pacifism is disguised timidity and weakness, and that our military policy and oh-so- touted virtuous "peacemaking" army is an embarrassment, and it is high time we grew up, put the Vietnam War behind us, and understood, just like any adult in every time, that peace is only achieved through strength. The kind of strength demonstrated with such virtuosity by George Bush and his foreign policy team this week. Can I just pause and say that I flat out worship Condoleezza Rice? Why do we not have a Condoleezza Rice, for God's sake? And kit out our Armed Forces with useful weaponry, strip out all the social engineering that has crippled their organization as an effective military force and send them out as agents for positive change? Report after report states, as does the most recent without embellishment, that our military is on the verge of collapse, "pending meltdown," that the Chretien regime has effected a neglect of duty and that we have entirely ceded our protection to the United States. Which we all, in common conversation, do nothing but tear down. The moral position of spoiled rich kids. In fact, our entire foreign policy needs a re-fit. What are we doing being the world's social workers anyway? It's humiliating. Take Romeo Dallaire, liberal Canada's military hero for our pathetic mingeing times. Not to make General Dallaire feel any worse than he does, but what on earth would he expect, but insanity, if placed in such an insane position by our so-called leaders? Few among us would not go completely bonkers if forced to witness the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandan men, women and children, as a member of the Canadian Army, sworn once to defend, but now castrated and forced to maintain peace. Or rather as I think of it, quietism. Peacekeeping is as much of a sewer, as dangerous and foolish as multiculturalism, and is not the job for an army in a sensible age. Our innocence is long-gone, the world is not paved with suburban cul- de-sacs, and we are not drug-addled children whining about the Vietnam War. The source of this wrong thinking was outlined almost 40 years ago by Malcom Muggeridge in the benchmark essay of our time called "The Decade of The Great Liberal Death Wish." Muggeridge, a columnist for The Guardian, was sent to Moscow in the 30s, to report on Stalin, joining all his fellow lefties who believed that under the Great Stalin, a new dawn was breaking in which the human race would at last be united in liberty, equality and fraternity ever more. Stalin, reported Muggeridge, would literally rub his hands together and laugh. The liberal mind, says Muggeridge, is intrinsically susceptible to grovel before any Beelzebub who claims, however implausibly to be a prince of liberals. Little point, said Muggeridge, in pointing out that when Stalin took over Europe, the first people put to death would be the artists, scholars, philosophers and scientists. Today, any ignoramus, Chretien, Kofi Annan, and "Mr. HIV does not cause AIDS" of South Africa can blame the West for Third World poverty, ignoring the tyranny, gangsterism, lack of free trade or fair judicial system or free enterprise, not to mention the fact that 90% of the aid money leaves the country to be spent by prostitutes in Paris shops, and credulous buffoons all faint with idiot delight. We hate ourselves and we want to die. Little other explanation for not rethinking immigration, for warbling about human rights for prisoners whose stated wish is to kill us, and refusing to defend the women ritually beaten and killed in the Arab world every day. For passively allowing men like Saddam Hussein, whose stated aim is to acquire nuclear weapons to use against us, to stay in power. For not signing up to the most important cause of today. The army is for peacekeeping. Saddam is misunderstood. We give welfare cheques to terrorists, and teach them to fly planes. We want our civilization to die.

© 2004 Elizabeth Nickson The material at this website is available only for personal non-commercial purposes, and it may not be reproduced without permission.