Pacifists are undermining efforts to establish world peace, or so says a cabinet member of a country that calls itself a superpower.
Addressing NATO officers and officials at the National Defense University in Washington on February 23, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the demilitarization of Europe, “where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it,” is impeding efforts to establish real security and lasting peace in the twenty-first century.
This sounds like the slogans from George Orwell’s book 1984: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
It is outrageous that the U.S. defense secretary is making such remarks.
However, it is even more outrageous that he’s getting away with it.
Why is nobody calling him on this?
Where are the political analysts, media pundits, and other commentators who are usually so quick to express their opinions?
They are strangely silent.
The chattering classes are not chattering.
The nattering nabobs of negativism are not nattering anymore.
And of all times for them to stop nattering, just at the time we most need them to natter.
People like Gates should not be allowed to control the debate.
But they will control the debate if nobody says anything.
In the same speech, Gates said that public and political opposition to the military has grown so great in Europe that it is directly affecting operations in Afghanistan.
But just what are NATO troops doing in Afghanistan anyway?
It appears they are creating chaos, killing civilians, and not doing a very good job of containing the Taliban.
But perhaps those are their real objectives after all.
It is true that Afghanistan is in bad shape and needs peacekeepers.
But wouldn’t it be better if peacekeeping troops from Islamic countries were sent to Afghanistan?
Islamic peacekeeping troops would understand the culture much better than NATO troops and they would be more welcome in the country.
And maybe they could even bring peace to Afghanistan.
However, it seems that the Western powers do not want Islamic peacekeepers to go to Afghanistan.
And the Westerners probably don’t even want peace in Afghanistan.
But none of this is being discussed.
Everyone is too busy listening to Robert Gates saying peace activists are undermining the quest for world peace.
And nobody is pointing out the absurdity of such remarks.
Where is this leading us?
It is leading us down the primrose path. It is leading us to hell in a handbasket. It is leading us to ignorance is strength.
He who controls the language, controls the debate. And he who controls the debate, influences public opinion.
So, if we don’t want the warmongers to control the debate, we must not allow them to control the language.
Pacifists are not undermining the quest for world peace.
