desperation does not lead to peace

Submitted by Ryan Brown (United States), May 26, 2006 at 01:29

"Desperate for peace" is a non sequitur. When you make a people more exasperated and hopeless, they become desperate for war, not peace. Calling for the enactment of suffering on a people, assuming that reactions will bend your way - this is irresponsible and misguided. This is simply not the way human behavior works - it does not bow and bend to your view of the world through sheer force. Pipes and most of his readers would do well to be better students of human behavior and experience. It is easy to read history your way, and to bend your rhetoric favorably towards your own interpretation of events. It is much more difficult to effectively manipulate cause and effect, to create an effective intervention. More force, more war, more trials, more accusations, more vitriole - this will certainly not get the job done, and will not lead us to peace, nor even to victory.

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