Bill,
Thank you for the cogent argument. I stand by my blanket statement. War is
immoral. As generalizations go this one is probably a bit more valid than
most but even if it isn't it beats the converse.

You chose to use WWII and the resistance as an example of the morality of
war. I accept your premise, that in 1936 the Nazi regime never received
signals to stop. I do not accept that the only signal to stop had to be
force majeure.

Conclusions drawn from are always dependent on when you start the clock. If
we look at history from the time that the Wehrmacht invaded, Belgium or
France or Czechoslovakia we can make the case that war was inevitable and
quite possibly justified. However, if we turn the clock back and look at
what led to these events we see vast opportunity to have averted war.

I do not believe that even after the war began, I will let historians decide
what event is the beginning of the war, that peace was not attainable.
Stories tell that during Xmas cease fires combatants laid down their arms
and exchange holiday greetings. If you can do it on December 24, you can do
it on May 14 or any other day of no particular significance.

During the Viet Nam war we orchestrated cease fires, for Xmas and Chinese
New Years. Though I applaud the fact that hostility ceased for the day, I am
morally outraged that they ceased for just one day. What is this some kind
of game? When we were kids we called time out in the middle of a game and
resumed after a drink or bathroom break. Is this how the powers that be
viewed the war? "Time out. OK, go back and kill/die now."

To summarize, war is never inevitable. War can be averted more easily at
certain points in the flow of history than it can at others but it can
always be averted. As Richard Barker said in another thread: "Unfortunately
the easy thing is just to become intolerant and just somehow solve the
problem in 5 minutes, by blowing a few people up. The hard thing is to have
patience and tolerance."

Work for Peace

The opinions expressed herein, whether mildly held opinions or hardcore
opinions are my own and not necessarily those of my employer.
Yosef Rosenblatt

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