Stay alive awhile and you'll see the United States of America back in its favorite and most becoming role of being a good neighbor to all the world. We have been there before and foreigners usually responded with admiration and affection.
The First World War left much of Europe in devastation. Agriculture and commerce had been affected adversely. Millions were hungry and thousands were starving in France, Belgium, Denmark, and Holland. An American engineer responded to the urgent plight. A man named Herbert Hoover, who later became president, raised donations from private sources only and organized a refief drive. He saved millions of Europeans from starving to death.
Hoover deserved maximum credit and he received adulation from grateful people. He was the hero, but this was the American way. America earned plenty of adulation, too.
Hoover, a Quaker and a pacifist, was more concerned with delivering foodstuffs than dropping bombs. When World War Two was underway, Hoover urged restraint. The Germans invaded the U.S.S.R., and Hoover suggested we let the two totalitarian dictatorships settle it themselves. He said we should stay out of it.
If you don't invest in war, you can afford to spend more on humanitarian ventures.
Peace, you have to consciously seek peace. President John Quincy Adams said that we should not go around the war looking for bad people to destroy. War can become an addiction, a habit. The day after President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war (presidents did that then,) he told Colonel House, "Now our people will get a habit and a taste for war, I'm afraid we'll never be the same." How many wars, police actions, engagements, meddlings, and incursions have we been involved in since Wilson spoke?
The nations best known for peace are Sweden and Switzerland. They don't mess with other folks' business or conflicts. They purposely remain at peace. Switzerland even mandates the matter. In 1815, the Swiss parliament passed a law to keep their nation out of the disputes of foreigners. They stay neutral by law! France became generally pacifist after World War One. When the German Army invaded France in 1940, the fighting lasted about two weeks. Paris was taken without a shot. The terrible price France had paid in lives in the first war must have left impressions on French minds. France also lost heavily in the Napoleanic wars. American pundits seem to enjoy joking about the French reluctance to fight. But the pacifism was learned.
The Swedes, the Swiss and the French all experienced difficult wars in the past. Now they concentrate on peace and prosperity. Two out of three are doing just fine.
We'll evolve to that point, wait and see. When we become friendlier, we'll make more friends. Fighting will become a last resort, good only for self-defense.
American already excel at humanitarian endeavors, which is in line with our ideals and matches the tenets of Christianity. We only have to concentrate on it. Giving and loving, as opposed to marching off to war.
We have military people in more than 130 nations. An intolerable fact. Offer them a chance to stay there awhile as Peace Ccrps workers.
America has the means and the will to be an even greater humiatrian nation. We have to erase the militarism. No bunker bombs, nukes, corporate connivances or shenanigans abroad, ICBMs, neocon war plans, entangling alliances, threats, and foolishness.
Take heart, true patriots, Our day will come. An inspired, motivated and sensitive people will clamor for a restoration of our traditional values and virtues. We'll conquer the world with faith, hope and charity. The sun will be out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar.
Let's roll.
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