Peace for Our Time

March 16, 2003
Sunshine for Women


This essay was written in response to an e-mail I received from a family member.

In the essay which you forwarded entitled "Peace for Our Time" by Alistair Cooke, Cooke equates Saddam Hussein to Adolph Hitler and warns the world against appeasing a megalomaniac and a tyrant. Widely respected for his powerful writing (even to the point of being knighted in 1973) this eye-witness to World War II eloquently states the danger of appeasement.

The world knows the dangers of appeasing tyrants: certainly the German, French, and Russian people know the dangers of appeasement – one, possibly two, generations of Germans, French, and Russians spent their lives rebuilding their war-scarred and shattered lands.

I am surprised that Cooke seems to believe that he needs to inform the world of the dangers of appeasement. Does he believe that the German's have forgotten their own history or the French or the Russians? Maybe American's have forgotten the events of WW II because our country emerged from the war stronger than before, not devastated and destroyed.

Certainly the French whose land was ravaged by both World War I and World War II do not need Cooke to remind them of dangers of appeasement.

Certainly the Germans who have had American soldiers stationed on their soil for over 50 years, who daily live with "monuments" to that horrid time, and who have listened to the world condemn an earlier generation of Germans do not need to be reminded of the dangers of appeasement.

Certainly the Russians, who lost over 20 million countrymen and countrywomen in WW II, who suffered through Stalin's purges, and who spent at least one generation rebuilding their industry, their communities, and their society, do not need Cooke to remind them of the dangers of appeasement.

Certainly the citizens of so many of the smaller states in Europe who were conquered in an afternoon by Hitler's troops do no need Cooke to remind them of the dangers of appeasement.

At the same time, Europeans, Asians, and other peoples whose lands have suffered the ravages of war know the costs of war: the cost in terms of human suffering and shattered lives, the cost in the destruction of families and communities, and the cost in terms of the devastation of industry and the public infrastructure.

I offer you some pictures of the carnage of just a few of the wars of this world. Do you seriously expect me to believe that the people who experienced this devastation first hand and their children and grandchildren have forgotten what it means to be at war? If any people have forgotten what it means to be at war, it is the American people. If any people have forgotten what it means to appease a tyrant, it is the American people.

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Bush is fond of claiming that he serves God. Yet he refuses to meet with religious leaders, especially the leaders of his own Methodist church, who oppose this war. Is it taking the Lord's name in vain to claim that God supports a war that God does not support? What would Jesus do about Iraq? Would he launch a mighty armada against an already contained foe? I think I do not understand Bush's version of Christianity.

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If this war is such a good idea, why don't the talking heads and other war supporters demand that their children take part in this war?

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I hope when the bombing starts that you can pause for a moment and ask God to have mercy on the innocent people of Iraq. On so many levels this war is the wrong thing to do. I can think of no justification for it.

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