How can people think that killing more people will bring peace?

Pliny the Elder

It's what they've been told by powerful leaders who stand to gain from warfare.

So the real question is why people unconditionally believe what their leaders tell them.

geoweeg

Simply "killing" more people will not bring peace. However, if you look at history you will see that the only times that two warring parties have had peace afterward is when one party decisively defeated the other.

So "not killing" people who want to kill us will surely not lead to peace, but soundly defeating them will.

kotikod13

why do people after the sixties still think everyone can just magically get along it was a failed experiment then as is now.......look at history and find your answer they are all wars...that have brought periods of peace....

David C

If all the enemy is dead what do you have left? PEACE! (duh).

Ape Klipe

no more people means no more war

wilderwriter

If a war is going on and soldiers are being directed by their leaders to continue waging war, it is common that when you kill enough of those soldiers their leaders will no longer be able to continue waging war. The most operative definition of "peace" is the absence of war, so by killing those soldiers one can "bring peace." This is fairly simple logic. Unfortunately, as we all know, war usually kills more than just soldiers, but there are few other ways to convince many of those leaders to stop the war.

BTW: Why are you so afraid to let people e-mail you? That notion that after wars are always recessions doesn't play if you look at the periods after World War II and Korea, (and even Viet Nam) and if the "allies" hadn't imposed such onerous demands for reparations on Germany, it wouldn't have happened after World War I, either.

jabrn

Give the points to "geoweeg". His is the most cogent answer here.

The reason he's right is because the megalomaniacs who would use force for terror (as are those in Afghanistan and Iraq) only understand force. They laugh at Western diplomacy. They acknowledge Western law and custom only when it suits their purpose.

And as for "Ed," who seems to favor submission, the reason McCain was "stupid" enough to make a statement like that is because, unless you want to die, you'd better hope we do win just as he said. In case you missed it, we had the president of Iraq speak in the US. Do you recall the terms of our surrender? He didn't care if we converted to Islam or not. He didn't care if we supported his government or not. He didn't care if we totally withdrew from the Middle East... or the rest of the countries in the world... or not. The only condition he placed on our surrender was our death.

Over the course of my 25-year Navy career, I had occasion to spend a lot of time reading the Navy Regs. Do you know there are instructions for just about everything you can imagine. But one thing is notably missing from those instructions. There is no mention of how to surrender. It's not in the lexicon of military leaders. They just don't do it. Politicians surrender. Diplomats surrender. The military does not. Yes, you can point to instances when "military leaders" did surrender. I recall CDR Lloyd Bucher surrendered his ship (the Pueblo) to North Korea. He had, from what I know, absolutely no excuse for doing so. In so doing he was violating Navy Regulations. The only reason he escaped getting kicked out of the Navy was that Chafee effectively decided the matter as SECNAV. Sorry, but I can't believe a Marine... even a short-timer... would ever roll over like that. What Bucher should have done... what he was trained to do... was to blow up the Pueblo to keep it out of North Korean hands. He was afraid of dying? That's his job... and the jobs of his men... and he should have told them that when the bullets started flying. What did he do? He let his men get captured. He forced his country to make an apology to keep them from getting killed. And, for that, he was allowed to retire.

Here's how it's supposed to go down. Remember that chopper that was shot down in Afghanistan a few years ago? I'm talking about the one with a SEAL platoon aboard. Remember how the brilliant media reported the SEALs captured? When I heard that, I laughed out loud. I pictured piles of enemy bodies surrounding the bodies of eight SEALs. The SEALs' guns were empty and broken from having been used as clubs. The SEALs' knives were bloody and dull from having killed so many of the enemy. And the enemy were still afraid to approach them. And that's pretty much what they found when they recovered the bodies. NOBODY EVER captures a SEAL. Nobody ever will.

That's the kind of guy you want leading the fight against people who only want one thing from us... our deaths. If you think some diplomat, or some career politician will be able to do it... remember Korea... remember Vietnam... remember "Desert Storm."

What about "Iraqi Freedom"? What about the war on terror? â€œThose who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.â€ (George Santayana)

â€œWar is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing that is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.â€ (John Stewart Mill)

Peace isn't the absence of conflict. It's the absence of armed conflict. The Nobel Peace Prize was started by the guy who invented dynamite. He figured that stuff would make killing so repugnant that people would quit doing it. Now, thanks to our technology, the destructive force of our new weapons are measured in millions of tons of Nobel's invention.

Without conflict, society, the world, would stagnate. Conflict, disagreement, the free and peaceful exchange of ideas, is what makes for progress. But, until that's a reality, â€œPacifists are among the most immoral of men - they make no distinction between aggression and defense. Therefore, pacifism is one of the greatest allies an aggressor can have.â€ (Patrick Henry)

Call Me Bwana

If peace currently existed, nobody would think that killing people would bring peace.

That would mean that peace doesn't exist, and if it doesn't exist, then surely there are armed conflicts going on.

And, if you look at the entirety of human history, people who chose to lay down their arms when others didn't became victims or slaves. The only way to protect their own lives was to take up arms.

Since human nature remains unchanged, then there are, and will always be, people and groups of people who desire to take what others possess - their resources, their territory, their possessions, their lives. The only way they will stop this desire is to kill them, creating peace. Not killing them does not create peace.

Today, there are many people and groups who desire to rule over others, who desire to see others die, who wish to subjugate and take the possessions and lands of others, who want to overthrow legitimate governments and force their beliefs upon oppressed peoples. They will not allow peace, will not accept peace. How do you suppose peace is to be had, then?

bumbleforce

killing is quite normal for animals and yes human being are animals. Lions kill other lions. Bugs kill other bugs etc. We have been killing eachother for a long time and nobody on this earth is gonna bring peace ever. Im not trying to sound negative but it's the truth. Ya we shouldn't be over there but what can u do? All i know is we r killing people who not just hate us but hate all western civillization and would kill you and your family with out blinking so when these people die it dont bother me at all. I also have a strange way of thinking though so take it how you want. I also think anyone who wants to commit suicide should be allowed to. those people are a waist. lol now im just ranting lol

Lwann

because there fighting for our freedom.
would you be at peace if you were run by another country.
assuming your talking as if your in america.
america has the most freedom of any country
and most of the people here dont appriciate it.
would you like it if you lived in a house made out of cow poop and lived with 8 people cramed in one room
because that how it would be if we wernt fighting
you haveing no freedom to express your feeling
you couldnt say you hate the war or the gov cause you'd get killed.

so killing the people that are trying to make us like that is bring us peace because we are alowed to share our piece of mind without getting killed.

Kurdis P

War doesn't prove who's right only who's left...

John McCain was going to have had all the terrorist around the world laying down their guns and giving up. I don't know how he intended to do it but he was, I qoute, " We're Americans and American willnever surrender and they will." Foolish man deserved to lose for saying stupid things and lacking intelligence.I wouldn't be waving a surrender flag but I wouldn't be waving look at us we are a bunch of idiots either. Our troops need leadership they can admire not despise.

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