By P. J. O’Rourke
I feel angry at the violent chaos, sorry for the owners of destroyed businesses and property, worried about the well-being of innocents caught in mob turmoil, sympathy for besieged law enforcement officers, and shame that fellow Americans – so freely able to peacefully express their opinions – are expressing them with brute force and attempted destruction of civil society. The rioting in America makes me feel terrible.
But – if I’m going to be completely honest with myself – the rioting also makes me feel faintly nostalgic... There was a day, back during the anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s, when I too was a rioter. With the scent of current tear gas comes a whiff of days gone by. And I am reminded of one thing that no pundit, politician, protestor, counter-protestor, apologist for protests, or denouncer thereof has ever (then or now) mentioned: Rioting is fun.
Half a century ago, we had a variety of ways to oppose the Vietnam War. We could have reasoned with people... There was plenty of information available indicating that, for serious political, geopolitical, and realpolitik reasons, the Vietnam War was about as worthwhile as pro wrestling (except that the body slams involved actual dead bodies). But marshalling these arguments, putting them into coherent form, and presenting them in a logical manner would have been
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WHYWARRING FOR PEACE NEVER WORKS
American Consequences
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