(Tysyacha climbs up on her peacenik soapbox and reaches for a megaphone)

I personally believe so. Shel Silverstein, though a poet, was also a prophet...

THE GENERALS
by Shel Silverstein

Said General Clay to General Gore,
"Oh, must we fight this silly war?
To kill and die is such a bore."
"I quite agree!" said General Gore.

Said General Gore to General Clay,
"We could go to the beach today
And have some ice cream on the way."
"A grand idea!" said General Clay.
Said General Gore, "We'll splash and play!"
"Let's leave right now!" said General Clay.

Said General Gore to General Clay,
"But what if the sea is closed today?
And what if the sand's been blown away?"
"A dreadful thought," said General Clay.
Said General Clay to General Gore,
"My bathing suit is slightly tore--
We'd better go on with our war."
"I quite agree," said General Gore.

Then General Clay charged General Gore
As bullets flew and cannons roared--
And now--alas--there is no more
Of General Clay
Or General Gore.

How many more General Clays and General Gores will die before we finally come to our senses and realize that war is mutually destructive?

Perhaps we, as a human race, never will...but there's always hope.

I think when we outgrow our need to control one another, the generals may finally be able to be put to rest. Till then.......

War is a necessity as long as some nations try to take away the freedoms of the citizens of other nations. I think that total pacifism is an abrogation of government's duty to protect its citizens from having their freedom and property taken away by foreign countries. Basically, war is hell, but it's here to stay.

Shel Silverstein Smarter than Wolfowitz, et al.?

Not really. Socrates said that the wisest person is the one who thinks of himself as not knowing everything, and in fact, only knowing a small portion of knowledge.

That doesn't mean Shel Silverstein may be right about peacenixism. It's that if Shel Silverstein may not be as intelligent as Wolfowitiz overall. I mean, claiming that "I'm smarter than so-and-so" just smacks of arrogance...and, in my mind, stupidity.

To truly find out if Shel Silverstein is smarter than Wolfowitz then just have them take IQ Tests, which I suspect Wolfowitz might pass with higher colors. Wolfowitz has gone to many universities and studied in many places. I may disagree with many of his policies, but I can be certain he can master Deriviatves and Supply Curves more than I can.

Shel Silverstein writes poems and books. He may be a good writer, but place him somewhere else, where he is in power, and let see how he'll handle the pressure.

(And a comment on the senitment: "War is mutally destructive", sounds like a nice slogan, but I think it was standard Cold War policy, Mutally Assured Destruction. If it wasn't for MAD, there would be constant warfare, as warfare is really not mutally destructive. It harms one side, but it harms the other side more often, and it will eventually cause that the other side who gets hurt the most dies off. Then the first side prospers, be happy, then divide and the cycle continues again.

In fact, I think some extreme realists are calling for a return to MAD, a return to the Cold War and its bipolar nature, because in a unipolar war, there is no check to that first power's goal. "It is because of the fall of the USSR that caused the USA to act as it is, causing instablity," argue these realists. "It is because the USA can do whatever it wants that we are in Afghanistan and in Iraq right now. The American people lose about 2000 lives and a lot of tax dollars, Iraq and the Middle East loses much more in comparison." The only real way to stop war, the realists subtly claim...is to have China and Russia become a new world power, to counterbalance the USA. That is NOT what Wolfowitz wants. Wolfowitz wants to ensure that the USA remains the sole superpower, fearing the consquences of what would happen if a new superpower comes in, if the Cold War restarts...

Disagree with his logic, but I think that should give him some credit.)

FYI: Shel Silverstein is dead, meaning he doesn't write anymore.

Which really sad, since I'll read pretty much anything by him over some boring political commentary by crotchety old pundits.

War is a necessity as long as some nations try to take away the freedoms of the citizens of other nations. Or somebody has something that someone else wants. :)