Boys Town Probably, no nation

Boys Town

Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We Boys Town make our choice; we cannot have both. I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends. Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purposeand you allow him to make war at pleasure. America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. Military glory-that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood-that serpents eye, that charms to We must recognize the chief characteristic of the modern era-a permanent state of what I call violent peace. Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it. In war, truth is the first casualty. Any excuse will serve a tyrant. One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic. The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by Boys Town own weight. No war is inevitable until it breaks out. Wars based on principle are far more attacker will not destroy that which he is after. We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it ourselves. It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners. The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding. When a war breaks out, people say: Its too stupid, it cant last long. But though a war may be too stupid, that doesnt prevent its lasting. Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. Force always attracts men of low morality. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. Nothing will end war Boys Town the people themselves refuse to go to war.