Secular Anti-pacifism: In most major wars, discrediting pacifism and its advocates becomes a propaganda goal. Some examples from earlier wars will be posted here as they become available.
In the current hostilities, Washington Post columnist Michael Kelly has gone on the attack against pacifism (Quaker or otherwise) in an already notorious pair of columns denouncing what he called "Pacifist Claptrap" and "Phony Pacifists."
Read the initial column here; and the followup here.
(Note: In Merriam-webster's Online Dictionary & Thesaurus,
"claptrap" is defined as: Pretentious nonsense: trash.
Synonyms listed are: baloney, bull, bunkum, drivel, flapdoodle, hokum, humbug, malarkey,
twaddle.)
This webpage is not intended to get extensively involved in such external debates; but
as Kelly's work is emblematic of a standard kind of anti-pacifist polemics, they are
noteworthy in that respect.
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This page posted by Chuck Fager, Tenth Month (October) 2001
design by TASC