Peace dividend

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If you think war is expensive, you should see what peace can cost. In Indochina the peaceniks wanted peace at any price, and for the U.S. to get out of Vietnam, despite multiple warnings by the CIA about what would happen (that South Asia would fall and the Marxists would exterminate/re-educate/expatriate the opposition). The peaceniks got their way, the benevolent communist people’s party got control, and the cost was >6 Million dead, and at least that many refugees driven from their homes, while the peaceniks have never apologized about what happened as a consequence of their "peace at any price".

The costs

In Indochina the peaceniks wanted peace at any price, and for the U.S. to get out of Vietnam, despite multiple warnings by the CIA about what would happen. The peaceniks got their way, the benevolent communist people’s party got control, and what was the cost?

  • 3,979,000 deaths in Cambodia
  • 1,813,000 deaths in Vietnam
  • 250,000 in Laos
  • a total of 6,042,000 dead
  • This doesn't count millions enslaved, and millions of other refugees driven from their homes and having all their property taken.
  • This also doesn't count that the peaceniks actions (in response to puppet master Marxist from Russia/China funding/leading them), lead to far weaker position in negotiations and politicians trying to micromanage the war. Both likey extended the war and cost more lives, but we'll never know for sure.

We do know that their drive to get us out of South Asia (and keep us out of area) helped Pol Pot's rise to power, the Khmer Rouge, and the killing of millions of innocent Cambodians (which the CIA had been warning against). Cause and effect. Unexpected consequences. Life can be tough. Tougher if you're stupid. Of course the peaceniks meant well, and may have been righteous in wanting us the hell out of South Asian affairs; and they were probably right that we should have never been in there. But there were very high costs for their actions too - as there always are.

During the Vietnam war 500 Americans per month were dying (47,378 total), less lives lost during the entire war than many single bombings of WWII. After we pulled out, the monthly death rate jumped to roughly the entire U.S. war total, each month for a decade. The Peaceniks have never made a peep during the slaughter of all those innocent people. They never admitted that the CIA was right, and they were wrong. They never considered the cost of their philosophy or that of their allies. What they said with their silence was that the lives of millions of slanty-eyed gooks weren't worth the life of a single American. They washed their hands of their mess and blamed it on not getting out sooner. But the truth is they were looking at only the cost of war, and ignoring the cost of peace.

Violence never solved anything
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Some say war/violence is wrong or that it never solves anything. They don't seem to remember WWII, or the various mass murderers that violence ended. There's a saying that, "it is only when a mosquito lands on a man's testicles that he realizes there is always a way to solve problems without using violence". And it's true, too many resort to violence, too quickly. But the opposite extreme of trying to talk a serial sociopath out of rape or murder is a waste of time. While violence should be the last resort, sometimes it's better than the alternative. In Iraq you had a choice of tolerate a murdering despot, or end him.

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