CONSERVATIVES WANT PEACE TOO

Leftist peaceniks in the Vietnam era often justified their opposition to that war by promoting the fantasy that they were the only ones who could see the evils of war and accused anyone who supported any military action of being a �warmonger�. Leftists are doing the same thing today as they oppose action to deal with the threat from the vicious Saddam Hussein. They totally ignore the fact that there is another large grouping in the community who are also most emphatic about the undesirability of war -- i.e. war-veterans (or �ex-Diggers� in Australian parlance). And war-veterans are also both overwhelmingly conservative and in favour of military strength.

Pejman, in his Wednesday October 9th. post, similarly pointed out that "warbloggers" and members of the military today are not "pro-war". Supporting pre-emptive action against modern-day Hitlers such as Saddam does not mean that you like war at all. You can hate war and still see it as necessary. I was myself a very minor member of the Australian Army Psychology Corps in the Vietnam era (which I allude to in my October 7 post) and all the members of the military that I have met have at most expressed an interest in adventure but never any bloodthirstiness. Conservatives are as keen on peace as anyone else. It is just that they are more realistic about what is needed to attain and preserve it.

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LEFTIST SUPPORT FOR BRUTALITY

Also of relevance to current Leftist posturing over the brutal Saddam Hussein regime is their past support for vast brutalities. As Cathy Young puts it in �Reason� magazine:

The Left's reluctance to acknowledge that Communism wasn't just a failure but an evil is due to more than stubbornness. Such an acknowledgment would amount to (1) validating a view of the West, Communism's Cold War adversary, as good (albeit imperfect), and (2) admitting that the Left spent much of the 20th century cozying up to mass murderers and therefore has precious little moral authority to criticize the West today. And that's very relevant to present-day global conflicts.


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GREENIE FANTASIES

The environment is one of those �motherhood� issues -- we are all in favour of nice green scenery and against pollution etc. The politically active �Greenies� however often exploit this with all sorts of wild claims about things that they say might harm the environment. I generally do not write refutations of such claims as they are generally so irrational as to make even Leftists look like Socrates by comparison. Some of our scientists do however sometimes take the shovel to the wilder Greenie claims. John Daly is especially good on �Greenhouse� issues and Aaron Oakley is good on Greenie nonsense generally. So do have a look at their sites sometime soon.

NZPundit is even bolder. He takes on the looniness of both the Lefties AND the Greens. From the abuses he describes, New Zealand needs him.

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A good quote from my email:

If I call for special programs and handouts for Aborigines, I am a progressive.
If I call for all Australians to be treated equally, I am "racist". The mind boggles!.

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Other good conservative links I have not mentioned for a while:

Tim Blair (Australia)
Scott Wickstein (Australia)
Dr Bunyip (Australia)
Aussie philosopher
Slattery (Aussie larrikin)
Libertarian Aussie economist.
Silent Running -- (NZ)
A New Yorker in Australia
An Englishman in the USA
Oxblog -- Americans at Oxford Univ.
A conservative Labour-voting Brit!
Steven Chapman - UK
UK Conservative
Samizdata -- UK Libertarian
US Libertarian
"Courageous" about race -- USA
Common-sense and Wonder - USA
Rightwing news -- USA
Judd Brothers -- USA
The King of the Blogs -- USA
Science for conservatives -- USA
The Politburo -- USA
Jeff Wolfe -- USA:
Dr Weevil -- A US Latin teacher
Rottweiler - USA
Sabertooth -- USA
Volokhs -- USA
�Cinderella� -- Good on French lunacy and history


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Comments? Email me:
Email: jonjayray@hotmail.com.