Mahatma Gandhi Quotes
When two nations are fighting, the duty of a votary of ahimsa is to stop the war.
Gandhi, Mahatma. The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Translated by Mahadev Desai, Navajivan Publishing House, 1927, p. 250.
Clinton was one of the leaders of the anti-war movement of the day. He even ran for President on the new “Peace Party.” New England, New York and many people in the Atlantic states thought the war of 1812 absurd. In reality, while the law was good for American morale and national pride, the casualties we suffered and the cost was far greater than what we were losing in our dispute with England. In actuality, France (under Napoleon) was offending America and seizing our shipping more than England. Note that Clinton was advocating negotiation even AFTER we would be attacked. This is in a way the complete opposite of the George W. Bush doctrine of preemption—attacking a hostile state BEFORE it has attacked us so as to prevent the casualties of an attack. The Bush doctrine was a great blunder in its only implementation—Iraq did NOT have the weapons of mass destruction that Bush and his administration claimed they had to justify the preemptive war.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and in turn inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "great-souled", "venerable"), first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world.
