"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders
of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple
matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no
voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked,
and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the
country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
I just listened to an interesting podcast on the
second amendment. This guy thought the founders didn't want a standing
army but wanted the people armed as a militia that could be called up
at a moments notice to defend the country from invasion. Thus the right to bear arms. The founders were well
read in the greek and roman classics and took a lesson from those
civilizations, which was when these republics went from a people's army to a standing
army it was much easier to use that army offensively. The basic premise of having an army is to defend your territory. They figured that the future of the country wouldn't turn into an empire as long as we kept a militia. Could you imagine the president telling the militia it's time to put down the Wii, skip Super Bowl Sunday, take a leave from your upwardly mobile job and go to Iraq to "defend" against a possible future threat? Do you think Nixon got rid of the draft just because he was a nice guy? Heck no, he did it to get rid of the protestors. Anyway I found the opinion very interesting. The standing army in this country started after the Korean War and was a mainstay throughout the cold war. Now the cold war is over and there is no longer an immediate threat from a superpower, it's time to put the toy soldiers away.