I have a couple thoughts on this topic. The first is that I don't think that it is fair to compare Einstein and Kissinger. Einstein's comments came from a position of a genuinely pacifistic hatred of war and the brutal results of WWII, whereas Kissinger's comment is cynical hatred of the masses similar to reactionary thinkers such as Strauss or Schmitt. I think that it is important to recognize the difference between a hatred of murder under the guise of love of nation as opposed to cynical use of that love of nation.
As to the comments that World Burns to Death made, they seem like the sort of moralistic comments that the Weather Underground made about the GI's before they learned better. If we look at the success of the anti-Vietnam movement, it was primarily based on alliances between the anti-war movement and the GI's. The war came to a halt in large degree because large sections of the soldiers refused to fight. This was aided by a sophisticated understanding on the part of the NLF in separating a critique of the imperialism of the United States from its citizen soldiers. It seems that these alliances rather than moralistic condemnation are the way to produce an effective anti-war movement.
robert wood
> I don't agree that soldiers are "brainless murderers." However, that
> idea is well-accepted among the elite, from Einstein to Kissinger:
>
> "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my
> contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the
> spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should
> be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all
> this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to
> shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that
> killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
> -- Albert Einstein
>
>
> "In Haig's presence, Kissinger referred pointedly to military men as
> 'dumb, stupid animals to be used’ as pawns for foreign policy."
> -- Woodward and Bernstein, _The Final Days_
>
>
> Tayssir
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>