Bob: It would be unpatriotic and irresponsible to celebrate V-E Day. How can the statists maintain an atmosphere supportive of perpetual war if men and women are reminded that there have been wars that actually ended? I was a small child when World War II was fought, and it was conducted with a sense that it would soon be over and that people could look forward to living in a world of (gasp!) “peace.” If such thinking prevailed today, it would be disastrous to the entire war racket: from the state itself – whose expanded powers over both their own citizens and foreign nations has depended on a warlike mind – to the defense contractors who profit nicely from the production of implements of slaughter. George W. Bush understood this implicitly in advising us that war has become a permanent activity; that to think of ending a war is to “cut-and-run” from our responsibilities.
If “war is the health of the state,” a condition of peace must be regarded as a period of disease and infection to the body politic. John McCain understands the realpolitik of this better than the other candidates. This is why, no matter who people vote for, the establishment will likely end up investing him as the next president.
6:42 pm on May 14, 2007
