Ernie: We might also think about Lincoln's plans for post Civil Way America;
he wanted, very much, to heal the wounds of the conflict. He did not live to see that happen but his plans are on record. But, generally, America has been magnanimous in victory. I think that is good policy. My point is that to actually win a war the magnanimous part must come later in the process and not be the focus of things as the war is carried out. This is also the point of various comments I have made in the past, that you can easily be thought of as counseling action, "go for it," etc, but at the same time as your car is on the highway, one foot is firmly on the brake pedal and is crunched to the floorboard. Two contradictory things at the same time, in other words. This is exasperating. More to the point, if you -anyone- is in a fight, well, make it real, fight to win, give it all you've got, make winning your passion. This is to discuss political fights, or literal war, including wars of ideas. When has winning a fight ever been your passion? Not once that I can think of. Not even once. That is OK for a medical doctor or an RN, but in war you need tough generals and tough soldiers and commitment to victory. In other words, you can't win anything unless you have strong desire to win, unless you very much want to win and regard loss as hateful and unacceptable. As Patton once said. Sure, I respect Doctors Without borders and I respect Florence Nightingale. But you don't win wars with either, for that you need people like Patton and there can be no substitute for people like Patton. Remember the movie, High Noon? The people of the town would have been killed or subjugated to the criminals except that Gary Cooper was willing to stand up to the criminals and fight them to the death. His focus was on killing the bad guys because their intentions were pure evil. All the Quakes could think about was praying for peace. Am I certain about who the good guys are? Of course, otherwise I would have no passion for any fight. Sometimes there are no clear good guys and bad guys and only shades of gray, but that is not what I am talking about, which is any situation where there is obvious moral clarity and dire necessity. Billy ________________________________ From: Centroids <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2018 10:02 AM To: Billy Rojas Cc: [email protected] Subject: Decent War Re: [RC] What does "make American Christian again" really mean? Let's put this a little differently: a decent a compassionate way to war against Hitler Um, yeah. Call it the Nimitz Way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_W._Nimitz Chester W. Nimitz<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_W._Nimitz> en.wikipedia.org Chester William Nimitz, Sr. (; February 24, 1885 – February 20, 1966) was a fleet admiral of the United States Navy. He played a major role in the naval... Sure, he fought Japan rather than Germany, but the principle holds. Fight ruthlessly as a professional, because it is necessary to destroy the enemy's ability to fight. Then act magnanimously, to secure the peace. Hate is a distraction; the best way to defeat enemies is to properly respect them. I'm pretty sure Belisarius would also qualify in this category, but I presume you'd know better than I. I suspect the real difference between us is that you are certain you're the Good Guys, so you are justified in focusing 100% on defeating the Other. I believe the key to defeating the evil around us is by defeating the evil within us. Only as I truly comprehend the evil my adversaries and I share can I destroy evil at the roots, rather than play whack-a-mole at symptoms. If you’d like to see how this works, I’d love to you involved with Truth Bowl... --- For the postwar trial of German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946, Nimitz furnished an affidavit in support of the practice of unrestricted submarine warfare, a practice that he himself had employed throughout the war in the Pacific. This evidence is widely credited as a reason why Dönitz was sentenced to only 10 years of imprisonment.[11] He worked to help restore goodwill with Japan after World War II by helping to raise funds for the restoration of the Japanese Imperial Navy battleship Mikasa, Admiral Heihachiro Togo's flagship at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
