Peace as an Election Ploy                                                                                                     In his 1968 run for the White House Richard Nixon declared himself as “the peace candidate” and the American people, disgusted and confused by the Vietnam War, ascended him to the Presidency primarily on that promise. History proved however that his declarations as being “the peace candidate” during that election were a cynical ploy to win; he actually had intended to “bomb the hell out of them” and force the North Vietnamese into surrender. “Peace with Honor” Five years later in 1973, and after a brutal bombardment campaign failed to break the will of the Vietcong, Mr. Nixon began to talk about “Peace with honor.” Saigon was about to fall and the president was looking for ways to acknowledge the failure of American interventionism in South East Asia. Nixon however, could not bring himself to use words such as failure, defeat, settlement or anything else that acknowledged the reality of the situation. Had his approval rating been higher or had he been a more self assured five star general and war hero like his previous boss, Dwight Eisenhower, he may have been confident enough to admit the realities to the American people.

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As we watch the war in the Middle East unfold on our television screens, each day bringing new scenes of devastation and horror, more and more I am hearing people say, “This is crazy, there has to be a better way.” These comments are not just coming from my peace and justice friends, the already converted dovish ones I can count on to espouse such things. No, this time I’m hearing this from unexpected quarters, from people I would never have expected it from. Yesterday’s news of 37 children killed in the village of Qana seemed so over the top, so outrageous, that I thought, “that’s it, they have to stop now,” and yet they are not stopping. The rockets continue to rain on Israel and the Israelis will not stop until they feel they have knocked out Hezbollah completely, until they feel safe. And I don’t know when, Hezbollah will ever stop. So we’re probably in this one for a very,very long time.

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