The Pitiful Pusillanimous Pacifist

This past weekend, I mentioned The Pacifist who looked at me with disgust and  rudely said to me, “Oh that’s too bad” after I told him I joined the Army Reserve.  The more I think about it, the more offended I become.  Livid is a more accurate description of my feelings.

Who does he think he is? It takes a certain amount of gall to say that to someone who has just volunteered to serve their country- offering to serve so this Pacifist can continue to have the freedom to say whatever he likes.

I’ve got to give props to my boy G.K. Chesterton who said, “Pacifists are the last and least excusable on the list of the enemies of society. They preach that if you see a man flogging a woman to death you must not hit him. I would much sooner let a leper come near a little boy than a man who preached such a thing.”

Joining the Army does not mean that I believe we should invade countries in order to obtain stuff I want.  If that were so, I’d already be on the campaign to invade Sweden in order to secure an unlimited supply of Swedish Fish.  This is why you should probably never elect me as president.  Unless of course, you like Swedish Fish as much as I do. Lifetime supply for anyone who votes for me!!

Err…Anyway, my point is this- you don’t have to be a war-hungry-bone-head to join the armed forces.

Switzerland is neutral.  Even Switzerland has an army, Sir Pacifist.

To bury one’s head in the sand pretending that there will be no war, if only you will it away is not unlike willing to never see Spencer and Heidi Pratt again on the cover of People.  It is never going to happen.

John Stuart Mill stated,

There are some things that are worth fighting a war.  Hey Sir Pacifist, do you enjoy living in America? Because we totally wouldn’t have a country if the founding fathers had decided to bend over and let England take away all their freedom.

Granted, now that we are buddy-buddy with England, this doesn’t seem quite the dire predicament as it was back then.  Plus, if England had won- we’d all have cute little accents.  Again, I digress…I’m aware that I may not be strengthening my case here.

I’m sure The Pacifist has never met a survivor of the Holocaust.  That whole debacle would surely turned out way better if we had stuck to the pacifist road a little bit longer, like Chamberlain wanted.  Oh wait, I probably shouldn’t bring up the Holocaust…The Pacifist probably doesn’t believe it really happened.

I limit my examples to these two- as this post is not meant to debate the concept of a ‘just war’- especially, given how much controversy the two newest wars have caused.  Whatever you think of the newest wars, I do not believe that anyone reading this blog would have the audacity to tell a returning Marine that he is an awful human being, because you are a pacifist and don’t believe in war.

And if you would say that, then I can say now that I’ve never been so excited to lose a reader.

I, as much as anyone, want everyone to quit killing everybody else and just get along.  Plato stated, “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”  And since he was a smart old dude, I’m of the mind to believe him.  Humans have the tendency to suck at stuff like ‘being peaceful’ and shit, so I’m not holding my breath.

As George Washington once said, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.”

So that’s what I’m doing Sir Pacifist, unacknowledged by you, I’m preserving you and your family’s peaceful life.

“The pacifist is surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrong doer.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

Tagged as: Army