—By Father DavidDO8695 February 1980

News articles:

Headline: U.S. Pledges Force!

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb (NYT)—The United States and Pakistan have agreed that U.S. military, forces would come to Pakistan's defense in case of a large scale Soviet or Soviet-inspired attack threatening Pakistan's independence and security, U.S. and Pakistani officials said tonight.

Providing details on two days of extensive talks between the two sides, President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq told a small group of U.S. reporters that the United States had affirmed through Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, that U.S. forces would be committed in case of a major attack on his country.[—WHY?]

Headline: WAR!

WASHINGTON—The question of the day in war, limited war, one fought with limited means for limited ends in the politically punky areas lying between the United States and the Soviet Union.

President Carter says that the United States would use force if necessary to repel "an attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region." Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, replies that, "President Carter may take us to the edge of war in the Persian Gulf. But he will not ask us to end our dependence on oil from the Persian Gulf. I am sure that every American would prefer to sacrifice a little gasoline rather than shedding American blood to defend OPEC pipelines in the Middle East."—I am not so sure!

Headline: Giscard Sees Danger of War

PARIS, Jan 1(UPI)—In a New Year's TV address, French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing warned his countrymen yesterday the world is threatened with a new war.

Headline: Pontiff Warns of 'Nightmare' of Nuclear War!

VATICAN CITY, Jan. 1 (AP)—Pope John Paul II today warned of the "terrible nightmare" of nuclear war and condemned recent moves to deploy advanced nuclear missiles in Europe.

The pontiff, celebrating the Roman Catholic Church's 13th world day of peace, said that a nuclear war can kill millions, reduce cities and villages to "a pile of rubble‚" and expose man to "great unknown perils" like genetic mutations.

"War is always made to kill, it's against humanity. ... The people around the world must be told of the terrible nightmare a nuclear war can bring," he told an audience of 20,000 faithful and dignitaries attending the New Year's Mass at St. Peter's Basilica.

News article:

STANFORD, Calif.—The Russians are on the march toward the oil spigot. President Carter is talking about drawing the line. We should be asking "With what do we draw the line?" The consequences of our past appeasement policy are now obvious. We must marshal our resources‚ or the price will be too great. Ironically, the Russians have already taken steps toward maintaining peace or, alternatively, surviving in war. We would be wise to imitate these steps.

First, Soviet leaders emphasize civil defense—the peaceful protection of their people against unclear attack. Second, the Russians are building a facility for the mass production of nuclear reactors at Volgodansk. The Russians are acting wisely on both counts. However, many Americans who honestly believe themselves peace–loving disagree with one or both of these positions.

News article:

Edward Teller, the physicist, who played a central role in the development of the hydrogen bomb.

THE WAR HAS BEGUN!—By Father DavidDO8695 February 1980

1. IT LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER WAR IS BLOWING UP! But that's how U.S. wars always start: —Over some tiny distant country! Who'd ever have thought it would start over Pakistan, of all places? But Carter has promised that if Russia invades Pakistan, the U.S.'ll counter-attack!

2. THERE'S BRZEZINKI'S PICTURE IN THE PAPER, HEAD OF THE U.S. MILITARY, National Security Adviser, all the way over in Pakistan aiming a machine gun at the Khyber Pass between Pakistan & Afghanistan, meaning at the Russians in Afghanistan!

3. (MARIA: SO CARTER HAS PROMISED THAT IF RUSSIA ATTACKS PAKISTAN, HE'LL SEND U.S. TROOPS IN?) Yes! No wonder Pakistan is so poor!—It's got the largest standing army of any country in the world outside of the U.S., Russia & China! (Maria: Wow!—And you said that's how wars always start?) Yes.

4. THAT'S HOW NEARLY EVERY WAR IS USUALLY STARTED: BY SOME BIG POWER PROMISING TO COME TO THE RESCUE OF SOME LITTLE COUNTRY if the other Big Power attacks them. (Maria: And so the little powers use that to their advantage?) Yes.—They want the Big Power to pour in money, arms & men, & it always winds up with the little country getting a little more territory if they win—usually another little country that sided with the loser!

5. (MARIA: SO THE TINY COUNTRY DELIBERATELY TRIES TO START IT?) Yes! The small country often tries to provoke the opposing Big Power to attack, so the little country can get their friendly Big Power to come in on their side & help them conquer some more territory!

6. IT HAPPENED IN WORLD WAR I OVER TINY SERBIA: Serbia provoked Austria, so Austria attacked Serbia; Russia sided with Serbia; Germany then sided with Austria; & Britain, France & Italy with Russia—all over promising to protect each other!

7. IN WWII IT WAS POLAND: Britain had promised that if Poland was attacked, Britain would come to her aid. After Hitler had taken over much of Europe—Germany‚ Austria, Czechoslovakia, etc.—and Britain had never done anything about it‚ Hitler figured if he'd take Poland, Britain would not do anything about that either‚ but they did!—Britain then declared war on Germany! Hitler thought the British were absolutely crazy to do so, & I think they were, too! (Maria: Why did the British go to war for Poland & not the others?) Well, it's usually a matter of money, trade, defense, etc.

8. THEY'RE ALL SUCH FOOLS! LITTLE BOYS PLAYING WITH GUNS! Look at Him!—Guys like Brzezinski are just itching for war!—War-mongering militarists! After all, they've been making all these war toys, these lethal armaments for years & years, & spending billions on them!—They certainly don't want them going to waste!—Just to waste the World! Sooner or later they use them, always! Sooner or later somebody's pride gets hurts &/or somebody's pride gets damaged, so they dive in for the glory of war & Father land!

9. NOW IF CARTER DOESN'T COME TO PAKISTAN'S RESCUE WHEN RUSSIA ATTACKS, he'll be really humiliated, embarrassed & put to shame, & if it gets that bad‚ he will come to their rescue! He's put his honour on the line!—In an election year! Now he has to keep his word to save his election! (Maria: Do you think Russia will go ahead & attack in view of his U.S. threats?) Well, right now they're no doubt balancing it up to figure out just how much he means it, & how much the American people would be willing to go along with him.

10. THE TROUBLE WITH THE AMERICAN SYSTEM NOW IS THAT THE PRESIDENT CAN GET THE U.S. INTO WAR WITHOUT CONSENT OF CONGRESS OR PEOPLE! The Law says that only Congress has the power to declare war, but all the past few wars have not been started by Congress—in fact sometimes they never even declared war at all! The war was simply started by the President, because he's the Commander-in-Chief of the military & he can throw forces into battles on his own in an emergency! He had the emergency powers to throw forces right in & start the war!—And by that time it's too late, & all Congress can do is put their rubber stamp on it!

11. THAT'S WHAT L.B.J. DID IN VIETNAM: The Vietnamese sank one of the U.S. patrol boats in the Vietnamese Bay of Tonkin, so he turned around & began sinking theirs, & soon it was a full-scale war! I think it was a long time before they ever declared war‚ if they ever did!

12. IN WWII THE U.S. DIDN'T DECLARE WAR UNTIL PEARL HARBOR. That made the Congress mad enough to declare war almost immediately! In WWI it took the sinking of the Lusitania, a British ship loaded with Americans sunk by a German sub. This gave the President's a good excuse to get into the war, which is what Presidents are usually waiting for. They need something that's sufficient to provoke the public & Congress & make everybody agree that they need to go to war.

13. THAT PICTURE JUST INFURIATES ME!—BRZEZINSKI 'WAY OVER THERE! What are the Americans doing' way over in Pakistan, of all places, huh? Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran & all those are Russia's next door neighbours‚ not ours! It's stupid! The U.S. couldn't possibly win even if they would go to Pakistan's defense!

14. THE U.S. WOULD HAVE TO RESORT TO NUCLEAR WEAPONS! They just haven't got the forces, but Russia's right there! She's got hundreds of thousands of troops right on those borders! The U.S. couldn't begin to fly enough men in there to even make a dent!

15. CARTER'S BEING RIDICULOUSLY FOOLISH if he's really planning on going to war away over there! He says he's not letting Russia gobble up any of their obstreperous little neighbours, but they provoked the gobbling anyhow!

16. THE U.S. WAS THE ONE THAT PROLONGED THAT WAR BETWEEN PAKISTAN & BANGLADESH (Maria: What happened there?) The U.S. helped the Pakistanis!—Gave them tanks, guns, planes & everything, when the poor Bangladesh were almost fighting with their bare fists! They had so few arms & soldiers, that if India hadn't stepped in to save them, Bangladesh would have been gone! The Pakistanis were just absolutely wiping them out! Massacring them!—Remember that? I really prayed the Indians would step in to their rescue, & they did! Thank God!

17. THOSE PAKISTANIS & AFGHANIS ARE BOTH WAR-LIKE PEOPLE! They've always had wild & unruly anti-Christ bandits preying on travellers! When Russia said that she was stepping in to Afghanistan to help quell the banditry & anarchy that was going on, she was right!—No doubt about it!—And it was no doubt being provoked by the CIA & the U.S. Government supplying them with arms & advisers! I agree with dear Indira Ghandi on that!

18. SUCH FOOLS!—TO BRING THE WHOLE WORLD TO WAR OVER SOME WILD LITTLE COUNTRY LIKE PAKISTAN OR AFGHANISTAN! My God! He's actually promising to send the U.S. boys to Pakistan if she's attacked!—And reviving the damn draft again to do it! And of course, Pakistan is the next one that Russia needs to attack‚ because they've only got a little stretch of Pakistan territory left to go now between Afghanistan & the Sea, Russia's long-needed warm-water port. (Maria: Well, do you think that particular fact figures in Carter's threats?) Yes, he's trying to stop Russia from going on to the Sea.—And do you know what this is going to cause Russia to have to do?

19. —IT'S GOING TO FORCE RUSSIA TO TAKE IRAN INSTEAD‚ which is even more, because they'll get the oil wells & the Middle East & everything if they take Iran! If the Russians can't go through Pakistan, if they believe Carter's warning—that he really would go to war over Pakistan—they'd be forced to take Iran instead! He hasn't made that same promise to Iran, not yet anyhow.

20. CARTER'S MADE A FEW VAGUE REMARKS TO THE IRANIANS about how they need to get together to "join forces against this common enemy, blah blah! We'll help you against the terror on your borders if you'll just release the hostages! We'll pour in military help & everything," but he hasn't yet promised that he would send U.S. forces to fight if Russia invades Iran.

21. BESIDES, THE AMERICANS ARE PRETTY MAD AT IRAN ANYHOW, SO I DON'T THINK THEY WOULD REALLY CARE! The only thing the Americans would care about the Russians being in Iran is that the Russians would get the oil, & they'd be in a very strong position to threaten all the rest of the Mideast oil! Whew! It just makes you sick what stupid idiots the Americans are!

22. THE WORLD HAD A PRETTY GOOD SYSTEM BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS: They drew up what they called "spheres of influence." "Now these little countries are my countries, & those little countries are your countries. Now, if you don't bother my little countries, I won't bother your little countries &/or whatever you want to do with them."

23. THIS CREATED THE EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES & THE LATIN AMERICAN TRUMAN DOCTRINE. Russia doesn't come over into South America & start invading countries there, & the U.S. has refrained from invading Eastern Europe. Cuba was a real home-grown revolution, it wasn't the Russians invading.

24. THAT'S WHERE KENNEDY SAID, "TAKE OUT THE MISSILES & THE BOMBS‚ OR WE WILL TAKE CUBA BACK!" So Khrushchev told Kennedy, "Well, if you'll promise not to invade Cuba, we'll take out the missiles." So that was the Cuban agreement‚ & they each kept it. But I don't think Khrushchev ever really promised Cuba that she'd come over there & defend Cuba if the U.S. attacked it.

25. COUNTRIES SOMETIMES MAKE A LOT OF HAZY ASSURANCES, but I'm quite sure it's been the possibility of Russian protection that has kept the U.S. from attacking Cuba for fear she might provoke Russia by breaking the Kennedy-Khrushchev agreement.

26. THE WORLD IS SUCH A MESS & THERE ARE SUCH MESSERS RUNNING IT! My God! It'll be a wonder the Lord & us will ever be able to straighten things out! But, we will according to His Word! Praise the Lord! (Maria:—Mostly the Lord!) That's for sure!—But we'll rule with Him! (Rev.5:10.)

27. IF CARTER IS CRAZY ENOUGH TO SEND U.S. FORCES TO PROTECT PAKISTAN, THAT'S IT!—WWIII HAS BEGUN! (Maria: Wow!)—And the U.S. & Pakistan would be totally licked if they resort only to conventional warfare, because the Russians far out number them in men, tanks, equipment, planes, guns & all over there! They've got everything already right there! They are already there, that's Russia, their border!

28. CARTER COULDN'T POSSIBLY FERRY IN ENOUGH TROOPS & SUPPLIES THERE BY PLANES TO STOP THE RUSSIANS before it was all over & the Russians already had it! Russia would have the thing taken over before he could get his planes off the air strips! (Maria: No wonder he's re-starting the draft!) Yes!

29. THE U.S. WOULD HAVE TO FACE ANOTHER HUMILIATING DEFEAT, THIS TIME AT THE HANDS OF THE RUSSIANS THEMSELVES! To have the Russians face-to-face drive them out of Pakistan, that would be absolutely intolerable to the U.S.!—So you know what they'd do? You've seen the movies & the pictures of it & you've read & heard all about it: The U.S. is all prepared for it!

30. THEY'VE GOT ALL THOSE DOOMSDAY BUTTONS RIGHT THERE READY TO PRESS! If they see they're losing again this time, I don't think the President wants to lose another war, especially not face-to–face with the Russians! If he thinks he's in there losing, & gets shoved out of Pakistan & the whole Middle East—which they will because Russia's right there with tremendously superior forces—

31. THE U.S. WILL RESORT TO THE ATOM BOMB! Unless Russia, decides she'd better strike first! Carter's a stupid idiot for making a ridiculous promise like that to try to go in & protect that little bunch of bandits!

32. AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN ARE TWO OF THE WORST COUNTRIES IN THE MID-EAST, & Iran ranks a close third!—They've all been a bunch of almost uncontrollables for hundreds of years! They're fanatical Moslems, & it's been part of their religion to war & slaughter Christians for centuries!

33. OH MY, WHAT A MESS! What a stupid idiot to have running the U.S. at a time like this! I mean he doesn't seem to know anything about world history or world politics or international relations or hardly anything beyond U.S. borders! He was only a minor nuclear physicist & nuclear ship officer, of all things!

34. SO I WOULDN'T BE A BIT SURPRISED IF WE'VE NOW GOT A NUCLEAR-PHYSICIST PRESIDENT WHO IS GOING TO PERSONALLY PRESS THE NUKE BUTTONS HIMSELF!—Crazy! I mean, he can yell & scream & threaten economic sanctions & cancel the Olympics & all that stuff, which is just fine with him if he wants to. But it only makes Russia madder & more insulted! But if at least he wouldn't send a single American soldier or make a stupid idiotic promise like that to bring on WWIII just to help Pakistan, we'd still be better off!

35. (MARIA: HE'S ALREADY SENDING PEOPLE INTO PAKISTAN!) Yes! The head of the whole U.S. military establishment, National Security Advisor, Brzezinski, already right there in a soldier's field jacket with a machine gun in his hand aiming at the Khyber Pass & the Russians to show how tough America is & ready to go to war!—With those war–hungry Pakistanis & Afghans looking over his shoulder!

36. THEY MUST REALLY GET A LAUGH OUT OF HOW STUPID AN IDIOTIC PATSY THE U.S. IS! (The nut who always lets himself get stuck with the check!) They can ask him for anything now! The U.S. has already offered them 400 million dollars worth of arms, but they said, "That's a drop in the bucket!—We want billions!" My God! Surely the American people have got more sense than that!

37. I'M AFRAID NOW WE MAY NOT EVEN MAKE IT TO NOVEMBER WITHOUT A WAR! (Maria: To November?) Yes!—The election! That's one way a President can be almost positive of retaining his office—if he gets his country into war! They're scared to death to change Presidents in the middle of a war.—That's one big excuse they use to keep'm in during every war: "Let's not change horses in the middle of the stream!" It kept FDR in, & he'd have been in there yet if he hadn't died! Then Truman got in because he was Vice-President, & he managed to stay in because of the Korean War he got the U.S. into! It took the Republicans everytime to get the U.S. out of those Democrats' damn wars, all of them stupid & useless & ridiculous!

38. SO WHAT DID THE U.S. GET OUT OF THE KOREAN WAR?—SOUTH KOREA!—HA!—Right back where they started! What did the U.S. get out of the Vietnam War?—Nothing!—Nothing but the biggest death-toll of any war we've ever fought!—And what did we get out of the World Wars?—Nothing! They just took away some of what Germany had & gave it to the other Allies & Russia, & created a bunch of little countries that Russia took over later anyway.

39. IN FACT‚ WE GAVE A WHOLE BUNCH OF POOR LITTLE COUNTRIES TO RUSSIA IN WWII! The Allies got together at Yalta & Potsdam & agreed together with the Russians to divvy up the world!: "Russia, you take Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany & the Balkans, & we'll keep West Germany & Western Europe", & so they set the stage for the following war!

40. THAT WAS BOUND TO BRING ABOUT WWIII SOONER OR LATER, the way the Big Powers divided up the world without asking their peoples anything about it! The poor Poles never had a say-so about it at all, the East Germans never had any say–so, & the Balkans never had any say-so about whether they wanted to be given to Russia or not!

41. THE UNITED STATES & HER ALLIES JUST SIGNED PRIVATE SECRET AGREEMENTS WITH RUSSIA AT YALTA & POTSDAM during the War in super-secret meetings with FDR, Truman, Churchill & Stalin, agreeing to give all those Eastern European countries to Russia, if Russia would just stay out of Western Europe! They did it because they were scared to death that Russia was going to keep right on marching into Paris & London!—After all, they weren't very far away!

42. SO PRAISE THE LORD! THE LORD'S GOING TO WIN THE FINAL ARMAGEDDON IN THE LONG RUN ANYHOW‚ & TROUNCE'M ALL! (You ought to see Maria with her tape recorder!! She's followed me around from bed to toilet to washbowl to coffee & here'n'there all over on the move as I exploded over this damn article on Pakistan, Brzezinski & Carter's crazy promise of WWIII!)

43. GOD HELP US!—AND HE WILL! AMEN! TYJ! He never fails! So don't worry! Just trust Him—In Jesus' name, amen?

44. THERE'S ONE THING ABOUT IT ALL THAT AMAZES ME!: How quickly parents agree to sending their own sons into battle to protect themselves!—How willing they are to sacrifice their own children to save themselves!—Or someone else's children! God damn the draft!—They're at it again! GHU!