War Machine Roars On

The maddest picture in the recent mad campaign was that of Democrat Mike Quixote wistfully posing as a bold warrior in the turret of a tank. Military tanks, incidentally, are major Michigan products. Since peace is al ways the prime prerequisite for sane survival, I appreciate the sincerity and eloquence of your December Peace Machine articles. But I wish I could derive more cheer and optimism from such ardent tilting at windmills of war. The statement that rings loudest and truest, alas, is that of Sheila Tobias: 'There is so much money at stake here that everybody can be bought. And we are naive to pretend it is otherwise."The sad fact is that the Peace Machine is struggling up a steep hill, like the little train that thought it could, while the leviathan War Machine roars greedily on.

Perhaps I'm letting winter melancholy strangle hope, but I often wonder if humans, unlike goldfish, actually possess the emotional maturity and generic sanity to accept the responsibilities of peace and denounce the irresponsibilities of military adventuring. Before the Peace Machine can function, the human appetite for violence and combat must be curbed.

Political rhetoric and babble about peace loving aside, the appetite for the glamors and glories of war sometimes appears gruesomely insatiable. Witness the perpetual popularity of violence on small and large screens. Witness the effect of that idiotic Granada episode in helping a sick administration and the Mortimer Snerd White House regain public favor.

Movie director John Ford once admitted ruefully that he had killed more Indians than the cavalry. Yet with his Irish peasant background, he was sympathetic to them and tried to portray them fairly and with dignity. "The audience likes to see them get killed," hc told Peter Bogdanovich. Mass audiences apparently love killing period, or there wouldn't be so much of it in their entertainments. The Peace Machine must overcome that grim affection.

Such facts acknowledged, I believe you and your Peace Machine contributors have the right idea, the only bright idea for species survival. Peace programs and conversion to alternate production need constant emphasis and endless struggle. That's the only path to peace. If the complacent majority in this country is alerted often enough, hard enough, and intelligently enough with the infinite patience and diligence required, converts to rationality may slowly be acquired. Stubborn effort over time can accomplish anything. Nature drop by drop constructed the Grand Canyon in a few million years. Maybe the Peace Machine can be managed faster. Keep trying!