Idealism untempered with pragmatism

(For some reason, this didn't post up Thursday. So, here it is)
Driving to work this morning, I passed the preparations for Greater Louisville Peace and Justice Communities' "All Day Counter-Inaugural" rally in front of the courthouse in downtown Louisville. I immediately recalled the words of noted British evolutionist, Sir Arthur Keith*, who said, "Evolution is unproved and unprovable; we believe it only because the alternative is the belief in God and creation, and that is unthinkable!"

In case you haven't noticed, we do not live in a perfect world. Though peace is always an admirable goal, all parties involved in a dispute must sign on, or it is not peace, but oppression. Sadly, sometimes force must be met with force. It is at this point we see Sir Arthur's mindset manifest itself in the peace movement. Peace is the only answer for them because their minds are closed to reality and the necessities of it.

Their blind devotion to utopianism (or their blind hatred of George W. Bush, you decide) flies in the face of the way things are. Reality. The terrorist insurgents in Iraq are responsible for most of the civilian deaths since the United States liberated Iraq. "Oh, but if the U.S. hadn't invaded Iraq, the insurgents wouldn't be killing civilians." No, but if we hadn't invaded, the former regime would have continued to kill by the tens of thousands and continued to support Islamic terrorists by paying bounties to families of suicide bombers. Palestinian terrorism continues in Israel, even as the Israeli government meets more of the (corrupt) Palestinian Authority's demands. Radical Islamic terrorists continue to strike civilian targets around the world. I don't even know how to begin to describe what is going on in Africa.

Many in the "Peace and Justice" community put the cart before the horse. They insist on peace at any cost, all the time, every time, even when the other side refuses to participate. In a utopia, this is not a problem, but in our world it is appeasement, not peace. The peace movement's idealism untempered with pragmatism is not only foolish, but, in this instance, dangerous.

I wonder if the "peace" demonstrators see the irony of their situation today. Demonstrating in public, covering a public building with their propaganda, publicly dissenting against their country that came into being through war and preserved thru the centuries by war, while Americans serve around the world, striving to allow others to exercise those same God-given rights in their own countries.

The United States is working for peace in Iraq. Working for it, not just hoping.
GBW

p.s.
I thought it interesting that the flag displayed on the LouisvillePeace.org website ("Join or Die") is a battleflag from the American Revolution.

*Sir Arthur Keith wrote the preface to the 100th Anniversary Edition of Darwin's Origen of the Species.