Awesomely Emerald

I know you're wondering about the latest doings of our "conservative" columnist for the Daily Emerald. He turned in a doozie yesterday.

Nik takes on the subject of war. He's for it. Let's let him explain.

My intent is not to lobby for war as the foundation of our foreign policy. I do however believe that it is important to recognize that war has been inevitable in U.S. history, and in all cases America has responded with valor and bravery.

Nik used to be a "peace-lover." This was before he took a few history classes and learned some truths.

What happens when peace cannot be attained? It was not difficult to conclude that war has been the preferred and successful response countless times throughout American and world history. In fact, in United States history, war has provided an answer for gaining independence in the 18th century, slavery during the Civil War, imperialism and fascism in the 1940s, communism in the 1950s, and religious fanaticism today.

Yes, as Nik explains, there have been five wars in American history, all of them righteous, all of them successful, three of them "world-saving."

Briefly:
The British left us no choice but to rebel. "There was no alternative to war..."
The Civil War was necessary to end slavery and is "said to be the last gentleman's war."
The "mentally deficient dictator in Germany" and the "Kamikazes" (sic) were "bent on world domination."
"The spread of communism led to fears of foreign takeover, represented by the Korean and later Vietnam war."
And now we have the Islamic-Fascists who are even more frightening than the "Kamikazes."

This paragraph deserves to stand without comment, as anything I could say would only distract from the simple beauty that Nik lays out.

This past weekend I was in Santa Barbara attending a conference where I had the opportunity to hear former Attorney General John Ashcroft speak. He made an interesting point when he expressed that 40 million people died in World War II because nobody had the nerve to stop Hitler. History, in its infinite wisdom, shows that European countries were petrified. Some were petrified with fear, others with dismay, while still others recognized the decimation yet acquiesced. This is a clear instance in which war was necessary, a line of thinking that a drugged up Hitler had already subscribed to.