The list of feel-good bumper stickers such as “Think globally,
act locally” and “You can’t hug your kids with nuclear arms” should
now be countered with “Nobody can afford ‘peace at any cost.’”
Late last year, four people who were billed as “Christian peace
activists” were abducted in Iraq by a group calling itself the
“Swords of Righteousness Brigade.” Around that time, Al-Jazeera,
the Middle Eastern TV network best known for their “two-fer
Tuesday” back-to-back airings of classic hits from al-Qaeda and any
other unhinged spiral-eyed crazy with access to video equipment and
a FedEx guy, broadcast a video.
On that tape, the terrorists from the SRB, a group name that
must have been invented after watching one too many Superfriends
cartoons, said they would kill the hostages unless all prisoners in
United States and Iraqi detention centers were released.
Suffice it to say, that didn’t happen, and now one of the
pacifist activists, Tom Fox, has been found dead. The other three
abductees recently appeared in another video broadcast on, you
guessed it, Al-Jazeera. Once again, the Arab television network
fulfills its obligation as the Nickelodeon of nut-cases.
With Fox’s execution, the question as it stands now is, will the
abduction and murder of peace activists change the minds of other
peace activists and bring them to the realization that this battle
is against people who also want them dead? Doubtful.
It would certainly make it clear that terrorists don’t care
about the political views of pacifists — proving peace activists
are simply a few in a long line of Western infidels who deserve
death at worse, or are captive pawns at best. In all the nature
shows I’ve seen, it never seemed to matter to the lion whether or
not the gazelle was pro-vegetarian.
Judging from writings on his blog,
which was updated nearly to the date of his abduction, Tom Fox was
a decent, principled man with sincere adherence to his cause. Those
who knew him or observed pacifism as he did may also believe that
Mr. Fox died for what he believed in. I would venture to say that
Tom Fox did not die for what he believed in — he died for what the
terrorists believe in.
The sad but true fact is that there will always be evil, and it
must be constantly repelled. The “peace at any cost” blueprint for
global harmony almost always focuses on first eliminating the
repellent. In this venture, they’re assisted, overtly or covertly,
by the bad guys, like flies joining in the quest to ban cans of
Raid.
If there’s something that should be gleaned from history, it’s
that a nirvana of ongoing peace combined with an absence of
strength is, in reality, a potentially dangerous goal, and it’s
seekers should be viewed with the same skepticism with which you’d
take tax advice from Willie Nelson.
With the abductions and executions of these peace activists, the
“peace at any cost” movement is being taught a very unfortunate
lesson. They are becoming the “any cost,” but that cannot and will
not be followed by peace until the price is paid not by Tom Fox,
but by those terrorists who commit these acts. Ironically, this can
only happen if nobody follows the advice of peace activists.
Consider pacifism for a moment. Pacifists oppose all killing and
refuse to use war or violence to settle their affairs. We all wish
we could live in this world, but we can’t.
When I was a kid, a rudimentary economic idea sprang to mind: if
everybody worked for free, everything would be free. This brief
flirtation with quasi-Marxism at the age of around ten exited my
head at the speed at which it arrived. Why? Because I realized how
stupid it was at the same moment it occurred to me. Even then, I
knew that if everything were free, nobody would work. Heck, it’s
hard enough to get some people to work even when everything is
expensive.
Pacifism is a similar belief, with a means that works counter to
the ends, and is one of those beliefs that can only truly exist
because of that which they stand against. There are more than two
dozen nations in the world with no standing armies. Some of these
do this to achieve pacifist goals, but guess whose phone is going
to ring when trouble starts? Refusing a fight but having a complete
willingness to allow somebody else to do it for you, so you’re free
to continue to be a pacifist, isn’t true pacifism.
From all accounts, Tom Fox strove to be a true pacifist, and his
unfortunate fate spells out why it’s so dangerous to espouse
pacifism outside walls heavily guarded by that which pacifists
stand firmly opposed.
