The Liberal as Warmonger

The liberal will tell us that no one wants to slaughter innocents but that it happens nonetheless as a side-effect of war. The liberal will also tell us that the lesser of two evils is the political candidate who will kill fewer innocents. Within the narrow confines of this discussion certain premises are off the table. War, for instance, is considered to be inevitable. At no time are the acts of war seen as avoidable or preventable, unless the regime currently in power is of another political persuasion. Then that party is a handy scapegoat for starting the war(s).

But totally unallowable is the idea that these wars launched by both parties are criminal enterprises that keep us invested in a war economy enriching the merchants of death. The liberal may personally hate the idea of war, but tacitly accepts it as part of the operation of the government. The liberal may even know that these wars are wasteful, futile, stupid, and pose a greater threat to liberal values than anything else. The liberal will still vote for a war candidate believing that the greater damage comes from the opposition. The liberal actually believes there is such a thing as "the opposition".

But there is no opposition to war from either political party. The scope, breadth, and intensity of war may be debated but war itself is firmly supported within the platforms of so-called competing parties. Only outside of the mainstream parties can we find people committed to bringing peace to humanity.
And the media does an admirable job (Hitler and Goebbels would admire it anyway) of keeping these people invisible and unheard. As a facebook friend said, "Esmond, you are so far out in left field you're not even in the ballpark." Indeed I am, and more's the pity for my friend who prides himself on "being realistic".

Much as some would like to relegate me to irrelevance for taking a moral stance against war, I can't help but feel that the onus is lifted from my shoulders. The minute we say no to a system which practices brutality on such a massive scale as the modern military machine does, when we give voice to a greater desire for peace than for the illusion of security, then and only then will we see that our rebellion is necessary if humanity is ever going to achieve peace, freedom, and justice. And the more the liberal resists that call to arms, the more the liberal chastises the revolutionary, the more the liberal proffers specious arguments rationalizing the deaths of innocents, the deeper the complicity becomes, revealing who is the real warmonger.