"Evil"

 Today’s TOTD is relatively short, as is another I have been working on at the same time. That second, God willing, will be sent tomorrow morning. On Thursday, Caroline and I leave on a nine-day road trip to visit four grandchildren, in four different colleges in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. We will be meandering more than driving and, while I will have my laptop, I will not be sending any essays. You have all earned a well-deserved break from my scribblings.

 

My thanks and my best to you all, Sydney

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Thought of the Day

“Evil”

October 14, 2023

 

“In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them,

and one of them must conquer. But in our hands lies the power to choose – what we want most to be we are.”

                                                                                                                                Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

                                                                                                                                Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886

 

Three days after the dastardly and cowardly attack by Hamas on Israel, President Biden responded. For the most part his words resonated well. In fact, given the chance of escalation by Iran or their surrogate Hezbollah, he said simply, “Don’t.” But he added, unnecessarily in my opinion:

 

“I just got off the phone with – the third call with Prime Minister Netanyahu. And I told him if the United States experienced what Israel is experiencing, our response would be swift, decisive, and overwhelming. We also discussed how democracies like Israel and the United States are stronger and more secure when we act according to the rule of law. Terrorists purpo – purposefully target civilians, kill them. We uphold the laws of war – the law of war. It matters. There’s a difference.”

 

Sadly, in war, there are no Marquess of Queensbury rules. The only law is victory. To eliminate the enemy. To eradicate the scourge of Nazism and Fascism during World War II, were “laws of war” a consideration? No. The Allies called for unconditional surrender. Approximately, half a million German civilians were killed in Allied bombing raids, including the fire-bombing of Dresden. Over 200,000 Japanese civilians died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Could those deaths have been prevented? Perhaps, but at what cost to Allied and Axis lives. With Hamas terrorists having paraglided into the Tribe of Nova music festival and killed 260 attendees, beheaded children, raped and burned women, and concealed hostages within Hamas headquarters and military installations, Israelis are not combatting an enemy who complies with the 1949 Geneva Conventions, or international humanitarian laws. They were brutally attacked in an act of pure evil. The Israelis job is to rid the enemy, to demand unconditional surrender, just as the U.S. and its Allies did in World War II. And Iran, Hamas’ supporter and financier, must be confronted. In a speech to the students at Harrow School on October 29, 1941, Winston Churchill spoke words that have pertinence to Israelis today: 

 

“This is the lesson: never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing great or

small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.

Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

 

Between Iran, Russia and China, an axis of evil exists today, just as it did in 1938.

 

Like its opposite good, evil is natural. It is found in all races, religions, and genders. It exists in all nations. We cannot wish it away. Victory in World War II, or the winning of the Cold War, did not eliminate evil. Perhaps what Hamas perpetrated in Israel will awaken the West to its presence? We hope so. The horrifying attack on 9/11 momentarily awakened the American people to the existence of evil, but it did not last. The Chinese subjugation of Uyghurs has not awakened the West to the presence of evil, nor have the atrocities committed by Russians in Ukraine. Evil must be confronted by a force stronger than itself. The democratic nations of the world, of which Israel is a part, are not perfect, but their people live better and freer lives than those in undemocratic nations. If we want to be that “shining light on the hill,” to offer hope to those less fortunate, we must increase defense spending. If we are unable to keep ourselves safe, we will be unable to rally to those when need for security arises, whether it’s us, Ukrainians, Israelis, Taiwanese, or others. And that military help must include humanitarian aid. Evil is insidious in the way it infiltrates society, one example being the recent rise of antisemitism, especially in Europe but also in the U.S. 

 

In the aftermath of the Hamas attack, some academic leaders, especially in “elite” universities, ignored the evil committed by Hamas and spoke in anodyne terms, of how we should not condemn those of different cultures – hypocritical expressions when one considers that many of the same institutions had cancelled conservative speakers in the past year. What the free world needs are honest words of wisdom, of how good and evil inhabit the world, that they always have and always will. And that we, as Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, must choose which path to follow.