Thursday, March 23, 2017

Seeking coexistence better than itching to fight

Two kinds of people represent two possible ways to live our lives.

There are those who think they are good most of the time and bad some of the time, but never do they think they are truly evil. As to how they view the others; they think that almost no one is really good, and that some are truly evil. This kind of people constantly itch for a fight because they are convinced that the threat that's out there – no matter how small it may seem – will eventually grow and become an existential threat. To defend against it, they subscribe to the idea that the best defense is the offense, and that's why they itch to fight even if no one else sees the danger that they see. These are the hawks you'll find behind every war that flared up needlessly.

As to the other kind of people, it comprises those who believe that human beings are fundamentally good. Absent a provocation for them to turn bad, they refrain from hurting someone as a matter of course. At other times, they'll go out of their way to help those who need a helping hand. Their philosophy of life is based on the principle of “live and let live.” This is why you'll find that when a dispute flares up between two parties in the neighborhood, they are there doing what they can to reestablish the order of peaceful coexistence. These are the doves you'll find behind every volunteer group that brings relief to the afflicted.

Clifford D. May and others like him are of the hawkish kind who never speak or write to counsel “giving peace a chance.” On the contrary, they consider those who do a dangerous breed of people whose effort at promoting peace encourages the evil ones to do bad things. Their view is that the hawks are the good people, which is why they should always be ready to defend themselves. The way they do this is by going aggressively against the people who do not stand with them.

Clifford May wrote yet another article in which he expounds this approach to life. It came under the title: “Trump's pivot to North Korea,” and the subtitle: “It's high time the United States deals with the most imminent nuclear threat,” published on March 21, 2017 in The Washington Times. His target this time is North Korea and its leaders; people he paints as evil and dangerous.

The question is: what should we make of this? Aside from what we think of North Korea or its leaders, how can we evaluate the honesty of someone like Clifford May who attacks the others – not to disseminate information that could be of interest to the general public – but to incite those who are listening, to adopt his philosophy, arm themselves and get ready to do battle with North Korea?

If, in this context, we define the word “honesty” to mean the fairness that the author displays when discussing North Korea, we must compare what his says about that entity with what he normally says about another entity. Who might that be? Well, since May's preoccupation has always been the Middle East, we must compare the stance he takes on North Korea with the stance he takes on Israel.

What is known about North Korea is that it has nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Its leaders say they need these weapons because the war that flared on the Korean Peninsula more than six decades ago has not ended. America still maintains troops in the South, and still conducts regular exercises aimed at preparing to fight the North. It is therefore the duty of the country's leaders to do what they can to defend their people. Having those weapons is their insurance policy.

What is known about Israel is that it says it has an arsenal of nuclear bombs, a fleet of ballistic missiles, and submarines that can deliver those weapons anywhere in the world. Aside from the fact that everyone knows this is a hoax of the most Jewish kind, Clifford May never repudiated Israel for having those weapons, or for lying about them. Contrast this fact with what he says about North Korea, and you'll see the double-standard by which he judges the two entities.

And since the double standard is a strong indication that intellectual dishonesty is the foundation upon which the Clifford May philosophy is built, his argument about North Korea must be rejected. And since that argument forms the essence of the hawkish argument in general, that argument proves to be as pointless as Israel's pretense it has an arsenal of nuclear weapons. It is Jewish rubbish.

The lessons of Vietnam, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Syria and Yemen should tell the Americans it is better to seek human coexistence than to itch for Jewish fights.