Hardly. And I will not either. I detest warmongers and am furious about how quickly we (the U.S.) seem to have lost our will to fight against the warmongers since the casualty figures declined.Where are the war protestors of past wars?.One hundred and five wars have been fought by this country since the Revolutionary War.
Some of these wars were minor and some major but just about all of them at some point ended when public dissatisfaction made itself too visible to ignore.John McCain and Sarah Palin, a marriage made in hell,have been beating the drums for war all week at the convention.He talks about his surge and she beams proudly about sending her son off to an old stale war which 75% of this country wants to end.
Two great men would not be pleased watching this travesty. Martin Luther King and Mark Twain are two of the most famous war protestors in history. I turn to them for solace as the warmonger justifies his jingoism by citing his POW experience. Why would a former POW be such a warmonger, unless he were absolutely insane?
From the speech by Dr. King protesting the Vietnam War.
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
By Rev. Martin Luther King
4 April 1967
Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live
.
Dr.King was ,of course referring to the fact that peace and civil rights are indistinguishable.They were not only inseperable. The truth is there is absolutely nothing worthwhile in this world that is as important to humanity as peace.
Ghandi,Schweitzer,MLK and thousands of other peacemakers have not been mentioned at the convention and you will not hear their names tonight.
More from MLK:
To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men -- for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What then can I say to the "Vietcong" or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?
"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."
The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.
While millions watch the former POW turned warmonger speak tonight I will not watch a word. Instead I will sit in silence and read the great anti-war written protest by Mark Twain: The War Prayer
I love the opening paragraph which reminds me so much of those weeks in 2002 when G.W and his drumbeaters were dragging us off to shock and awe in Iraq. Everyone was waving a flag and testosterone levels were soaring through the roof as men dreamed of wearing uniforms and beautiful young women falling at their feet. G.W,'s poll numbers were at record levels.The old generals dreamed of sending young men off to fight the wars they were now to old to fight thermselves.
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener.
The War Prayer was written by Twain during the US war on the Philippines. It was submitted for publication, but no publisher would risk his career on an essay which would be mocked by the patriots who once again were caught up in an unexplainable fever. Eight days later, Twain wrote to a friend to whom he had read the story, "I don't think the prayer will be published in my time." It remained unpublished until after his death.
The final paragraph ,dripping with sarcasm, described perfectly the sort of religious "rapture" which the radical right wing will feel tonight when their warmonger candidate whips them into a mad pack of wolves;
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
```.