When the World Outlawed War

For war’s victims and most of its participants it always turns out to be the horror it appeared in 1918. But for those who know war only through U.S. television, the idea of criminalizing it sounds almost like proposing to criminalize government. That state of affairs is what I find disturbing, the realization of how normal it is to think of government as essentially responsible for large-scale killing. This is miles away from Warren Harding’s return to “normalcy” after World War I. Since World War II we have never returned to normalcy.

Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet: "David Swanson’s recently released book, When the World Outlawed War, tells the story of how the highly energized peace movement in the 1920s, supported by an overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens from every level of society, was able to push politicians into something quite remarkable - the Kellogg-Briand Pact and the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy. The 1920s 'War Outlawry' movement in the United States was so popular that most politicians could not afford to oppose it." 

We have banned slavery, genocide, rape and torture. In the recent decades the instances of these crimes against humanity have increased some say due to a disinterest in law enforcement.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact failed during the feverish run-up to WWII. Since that time we have institutionalized war in the form of the Military/Industrial Complex. It has formed the basic historical and cultural fantasy of a new religion: war. Outlawing it would criminalize the elements of its making.