[RascalPuff]

In a recent discussion with a sincere 'anti-war-pro-peace advocate, this record offered that it had attended a meeting, of peace proponents - an array of Committees for Non Violence - from all over the United States and Europe, who met at SWORDS & PLOW-SHARES on Mission Street In San Francisco in the early 1980’s. There were many different and oppositional view-points expressed at that time and place as to what might or not be the best way to create and maintain peace In the world. One point, however, that everyone there uniformly agreed on was, that each and every sovereign nation must keep and maintain a standing military for self defense purposes in order to assure peace as well as to risk war, of course.

I asked the subjected, peace promulgating man of the ‘90’s if he knew of any nation in the world that didn't have a military, since he had interrupted the record to proclaim that the abolition of militarism should have happened a long time ago, and that ‘war doesn’t accomplish anything’, resolving that 'some countries don't have a military'. I asked him what countries he was referring to. He hesitated for a full thirty seconds, finally 'answering' with a question:
'Switzerland?’
The record reminded the young peacemaker that Switzerland may be the most fortified country in the world and has one of the most highly trained and well equipped standing armies and, that what he had probably confused for the absence of a military was in fact Switzerland's traditional policy of ‘neutrality' when it comes to wars on the European continent... The well intended, characteristically underinformed adversary reluctantly agreed. He could not furthermore think of any 'other' country that doesn't have a standing military, at least for self-defensive purposes... (Puerto Rico is without a military, but is protected by the United States; as are the East and West Indies.)

All of this is to consider the importance of understanding what it is that you are opposed to, and especially in the spirit of being opposed to war itself. Antiwar activism In Vietnam between 1965 and 1975 would mean nothing - except treason - to the Vietnamese people, who were obliged at that time to fight a defensive war. Ostensibly, some wars are perceived differently, depending on the perspective of the aggressor or the defender. That is to say, there are In fact 'right' wars and 'wrong' wars. 'Good' warmakers and 'bad' warmakers. These are some of the differences between defensive warfare and offensive warfare; between obligatory killing and 'optional', avoidable murder; esp. when the oppressor is assured of success.

Blessed Be The Peacemakers:
Abolishing war is a very high and well-intended goal therefore. But Sun Tzu, author of the 2,000 year old THE ART OF WAR (based on the I CHING; translated to English and distributed for the lst time in the U.S., in 1988), strongly advises - whenever possible - the studying of every enemy to the fullest degree possible, before the engagement of that enemy.

That is to say, in order to eliminate the acknowledged scourge - and unfortunately accompanying constructive industrial, scientific, medicinal and theological tonic - of war from the socio-human experience, it is best to understand as much as possible about what it is we are attempting to abolish;and how that accomplishment may be most realistically - and expediently - achieved: how and what non-destructive incentive(s) may inspire people to industrious, scientific and social progression: without the abominably costly motivational impetus of war.

'Humanity must put an end to war; before war puts an end to humanity'.
- J.F.K.

"In times of war: truth is the first casualty.”
- Sen. Hiram Johnson, 1917
(Paraphrased from An ancient Greek axiom)

“When you tell the truth, be sure you have one foot in the stirrup.”
- An Old Mongol Proverb

The European culture at large, certainly including the United States, Is in fact for, these self-revealing reasons of historical ignorance, socially instilled denial, and Informational evasion, alarmingly ill-equipped to fullfill the agreed-upon noble mission of the peacemakers: who are quick to oppose war, and equally reluctant to understand what it is that they disagree and conflict with.

In John Keegan's A HISTORY OF WARFARE, copyright 1994, he quotes Aldous Huxley proclaiming that + ‘An intellectual is someone who has found something more interesting than sex .’
Keegan goes on to say that +’A civilized person is definable as someone who has found something more interesting than combat ( war/ violence )’.
- Kent Benjamin Robertson
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Book Reviews and exerpts follow. All statements marked with an asterisk - * - are the narrative statements of Kent Benjamin Robertson - KBR - editor of the following anthological collection of book reviews.
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Notes On Warfare - Causes & Effects
“Jericho, perhaps European civilization’s first walled city, with moat and a tower (citadel). Fortified against raids by inhabitants of the arid zone (grassland steppes of untillable soil) beyond Jericho’s agricultural base. The stored grains of farmers were probably not the raider’s goal, whereas, the farmer’s livestock - and people for slaves - probably was the incentive of the aggressors.”
- Paraphrased from John Keegan’s WAR AND OUR WORLD
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Excerpts from Gwynne Dyer’s WAR, Copyright 1985, follow:

“To begin quite close to the end: we may inhabit the Indian summer of human history, with nothing to look forward to but the ‘nuclear winter’ that closes the account. The war for which the great powers hold themselves in readiness every day may come, as hundreds of others have in the past. The megatons will fall, the dust will rise, the sun’s light will fail, and the race may perish.

Nothing is inevitable until it has actually happened, but the final war is undeniably a possibility, and there is one statistical certainty. Any event that has a definite probability, however small, that does not decrease with time will eventually occur - next year, next decade, next century, but it will come. Including nuclear war.

It is therefore the dilemma and the duty of our generation, and as many more as have time to be born, to learn how to make the probability of nuclear war shrink and eventually vanish. Since the scientific and organizational abilities that have swollen war to this monstrous scale cannot be forgotten, the task is even larger: to discover how to dispense with war altogether. The starting point must be to see the institution of war as a whole and to understand how it works.