The A-Team Blog has linked to a post found through Michelle Malkin’s blog asking how pacifism can actually stop the terrorists. That’s the brief version any way.
The post and the general rhetoric from the pro-war camp presupposes two things which effectively reduce their arguments to nothing more than baseless rhetoric:
1. The burden of proof is on pacifists to prove nonviolence is effective. When it comes to taking human lives, the burden of proof should always be on the side taking the lives rather than those who advocate nonviolent responses to aggression.
2. War is an effective response to aggression which will successfully eliminate future aggression.
Most of what I read from the right-wing camp deriding pacifists holds these two presuppositions as truth. They claim a privileged position and lay the burden of proof on those opposed to their tactics while never being able to effectively show their tactics are producing the supposed desired results.
War begets war. Bloodshed begets bloodshed. Bombings inspire some to become bombers.
War is an incredibly complex issue, and the answers are not easy. Supporting rhetoric which can only provide pats on the back from those who already agree with you is not the way to deal with such a sensitive issue.
I do not believe all thinking people must be pacifists, for the issue runs too deep for such a simplistic claim. But those who oppose my pacifistic beliefs would like everyone to believe you can’t be a thinking person and be a pacifist. They stuff rhetoric down our throats saying hugs won’t stop bombers and place themselves on the moral high ground.
The burden of proof should be on those who support taking human lives. Ridiculing those who are against war with baseless rhetoric may make someone feel good about themselves and their moral superiority, but it does little to deal with the serious issues of our day.
The A-Team Blog :: Dear Pacifist
Added: It should also be noted that not all anti-war protesters are pacifists. Some are just against this war, and see it as an atrocity against humanity. Michelle Malkin seemed to think a banner saying “Our of Iraq and into Darfur” was contradictory to the anti-war protest. Not at all. Many of those who support the war don’t seem to acknowledge that many, many persons who are not pacifists oppose the war in Iraq for a myriad of reasons which have little or nothing to do with pacifism.
Leave a Reply