Twisted Sister
Bob,
Sounds like Marcinko and his Red Cell Team.
Folks,
In the 70’s I sat and had a chat with Elizabeth McAllister, Daniel Berrigan’s wife, in her community home in Baltimore. I lived in a religious community, too, at the time. She and her folks were spinning up a peace protest action. She read a written statement but her enunciation was poor when she read the title, and motto, of the action - it sounded like “disahmahdigrave.” It actually was “Disarm or Dig Graves.”
The point was that the US needed to disarm unilaterally because it was primarily the US’s arms that kept the world “on the brink of nuclear holocaust!” We could do one of only two things - disarm or dig graves.
Being the son of an Air Force officer, I took some exception to her idea, pointing out that war is thrust upon the world by evil men who would take full advantage of a unilateral disarmament. The response was to quote the Beatitudes regarding pacifism. Fine, but Jesus did take a whip to the moneychangers in the temple and did have Peter arm himself before going to the Garden of Gethsemane. Further, that while our community had strong pacifist elements and close ties to historic peace churches, passive resistance utterly relies on the willingness of the oppressor to be changed. This would not have worked with Adolph and certainly would not work with the Soviets.
Of course, nothing penetrated. I came to realize that the commitment to “peace” and “action” was really a commitment to passive aggression and acting out. Real “peace” people work to build societies that bring up those who are cast down, not bring down those who sit on top of the heap; raise the bottom of the heap and the top gets closer for all.
This idea is not at all in their worldview. They understand that they have little chance to actually accomplish what they say they want, but that is okay in that failure is very comfortable when you can wrap yourself in it and feel quite superior - the actual goal the entire time.
Bob, I don’t know about the rest of SAC but during the mid- to late-70’s at Minot AFB where I was stationed, there was a complete “take no prisoners” attitude on the part of the SP’s. I was assigned to the headquarters squadron 77th Missile Command and our barracks was shared between admin staff (like us AFO pukes) with the SP’s. Those guys rode around or stood guard with loaded M-16’s at all times. The whole base and every missile silo was surrounded by double chain link fences. Only once did anyone try to get past the guards at the main gate. He had his car windows shot out and all four tires flattened before he got five feet inside the gate. The SP’s had a party in the barracks that night to celebrate and for once they even shared their
with the rest of us.
Attention Pacifists:
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because
rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”----George Orwell
Posted by piccalo
12/22/2005 at 05:27 PM
Rickvid, well written!
The thing that always irritated me most about these “peacenik” types is this. They seem absolutely convinced that the first move is ALWAYS ours, regardless, and the remainder of the world is trapped in limbo, immobile, incapable of doing anything until WE do something. The notion is patently ridiculous on its face, but when you point that out to them? Blank-out.
They simply seem to never get it through their thick heads that everyone else in the world is perfectly capable of taking their own initiatives, without any prompting from us. And when they are caterwauling about how we are the root of all evil in the world, try telling them to speak for themselves and see what happens! Cheez!
It invariably becomes instantly obvious that they do not consider themselves “part of us.”
The term is fifth column. Let it be done and be damned!
Bob, in the 70’s the only sign at Minot read:
“ONLY THE BEST COME NORTH”
(over the main gate)
You’re right about one thing. Back then, there were the SP’s and the AP’s. The former were in charge of base security and the latter were in charge of traffic tickets on base. I sincerely hope it DID change in the 80’s.
I, too, am a pacifist.
I’m a heavily armed pacifist.
“The meek, indeed, shall inherit the Earth—mostly in small plots approximately six feet deep.”—Robert Heinlein
Posted by MAJ Mike
12/22/2005 at 10:10 PM
What a crock. Morons. The only thing they did right was to stick around and get aressted. If you do the civil disobedience, you gotta do the time.
Posted by Oink
12/23/2005 at 09:08 AM
"Civil disobedience is STILL disobedience...” - Maddox
"Kiss my black ass ...” -Rosa Parks
P.S. Shinjin, was that Lester Maddox?
P.P.S. I made up the Rosa quote. If the law says you aren’t really human, screw the law.Posted by Oink
12/23/2005 at 10:08 PM
Lester Maddox? No…
Try this creepy dude, instead: Maddox
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