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pull off a disarmi ng fi rst strike- at
least against U.S. land-based mis–
siles- and ward off attacks from an
aging U.S. bomber fteet.
" The Paper lt's Written On"
While it may be true that, as Win–
ston Churchill said, "to jaw, jaw is
better than to war, war," treaties
and negotiations cannot
of them–
selves
make the world safer.
Hans Morgenthau, in bis classic
text on internat ional reiations–
Politics Among Nations-wri tes:
" The modero philosophy of disar–
mament proceeds from the assump–
tion that men fight because they
have arms." Rather, "men do not
fight because they bave arms. They
fight because they deem it neces–
sary to fight."
We are face to face with an
un pleasant fact about human
nature. Human poli tica l leaders
cannot be counted on not to take
advantage of weakness. Human
February 1982
nature will get away with what it
can get away with- the only ulti–
mate bound on it is force. Since
Caín and Abe!, human beings have
t ried to domínate each other and
have in return tried to resist. This
may seem like a rather dim view of
human nature, but it accords witb
everything we know about man
from history or from God's written
word, the Bible.
"The [human] heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately
wicked ..." (Jer. 17:9).
Note the words of one arms ana–
lyst, Bruce Douglas Clayton, writ–
ing in the generally dovish
Bulletin
of Atomic Scientists:
"Given the history of human
behavior with regard to weapons,
nationalism, territoriality, mi litar–
ism, disputes, armed confronta–
tions, and war-making in general, is
it reasonable to expect the nuclear
powers to disarm themselves? Will
total brotherhood be achieved with-
in the next few years? It has never
been achieved before."
Mr. Morgenthau writes that "al!
poli tically active nations are by def–
inition engaged in a competition for
power of which armaments are an
indispensable element."
The lust for power is as old as
the devil's challenge to God (see
Isaiah 14: 12-15). And it is part of a
certain spirit that has existed in
human beings since Adam took
from the forbidden tree in the Gar–
den of Eden: there is a certain hos–
tility- and pride-which nations
can be relied on to reftect. The
desire to domínate others
for its
own sake
was the key element of
the devil 's challenge to God and an
attitude that human beings have
always, as a matter of simple histor–
ical fact , exemplified.
"From whence come wars and
figh tings among you?" asked the
apostle J ames (J as. 4: 1). "Come
they not hence, even of your lusts
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