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I just started reading the second volume of Malcolm Muggeridge's two-volume memoir. Chapter two begins with a quote from Augustine's City of God.
Even wars, then, are waged with peace as their object, even when they are waged by those who are concerned to exercise their warlike prowess, either in command or in the actual fighting. Hence it is an established fact that peace is the desired end of war. For every man is in quest of peace even in waging war, whereas no one is in quest of war when making peace. In fact, even when men wish a present state of peace to be disturbed, they do so not because they hate peace, but because they desire the present peace to be exchanged for one that suits their wishes. Thus their desire is not that there should not be peace, but that it should be the kind of peace they wish for.
Since immediately following the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas, before Israel had even lifted a finger in response, there have been calls for peace. For restraint. For extended sucking of thumbs. I'm happy to be corrected on this, but the first person out of the gate with a call for "peace" was a member of the U.S. Congress, I believe.
Such calls for peace are, it seemed to me after reflecting on the above Augustine quote, calls for a specific "kind of peace they wish for," which, if they could achieve it, would be fundamentally unjust. But, notably, that does not stop them from calling for such a peace. A lot of the calls for peace sound, to my ears, more like calls for injustice. For the kind of peace they wish for is one in which atrocities committed against innocents can be performed with impunity. The kind of peace where the rape and dismemberment of babies would remain unpunished and without consequence for the rapists and the butchers.
Perhaps there is someone somewhere calling for a peace that involves the return of all Israeli hostages and the unconditional surrender of Hamas. But these are terms notably absent from every call for peace I've heard. I'm not aware of anyone seriously calling for this kind of peace. I myself am happy to call for such a peace even now. I do so forthwith and with all sincerity. If both sides agree, I'm confident there can be an immediate peace. But that is not the kind of peace that most are calling for. The kind of peace wanted by the fascist progressive left is one in which barbarians and monsters go about unmolested and even celebrated. And all while innocents are vilified and have murder incited against them.
Such a peace, it seems to me, would be a kind of peace that is worse than war itself, for it would ensure that the atrocities of Hamas will never end.
Discussion (8)
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They would "make a desert, and call it peace."
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I don't pray for peace. I pray for total victory for Israel. I'm with Maureen Mullarkey (and you, Keith) on this:
thefederalist.com
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Keith, absolutely right and nicely said.
(And thanks for calling my attention to this post.)
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Hamas doesn't want peace they want to kill all the Jews, not just in Israel but everywhere. Then they want to kill all the Christians. Then I suspect they want to kill any Muslim who isn't sufficiently zealous for them. They will only have peace in hell once they are sent there, may it be soon. I generally agree with the quote. I am just not sure it applies to these [expletives deleted].
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Pointing out once again that islam doesn't mean "peace" it means "submission."
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