In his essay “The Contest In America,” 19th-century libertarian philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill wrote, “[W]ar … is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer. War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.”

Mill added, “A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.”

Some 150 years later, there is no shortage of “miserable creatures” flaunting their “decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling,” with bumper-sticker slogans: “Peace … Coexist … War is not the answer … Imagine … I’m already against the next war … Wage Peace … Christianity is bombing in the Middle East … Quagmire Accomplished … Bush lied troops died,” et cetera, ad nauseam, infinitum.

These are not the descendants of the Early American peace movement, which can rightfully trace its origins to non-interventionists and pacifists. These are instead the effluent of the “Pop Peace Cult,” which coalesced as a socio-political force in the 1960s, unifying as a radical outgrowth of the Civil Rights movement.

It is these pusillanimous pantywaists, “daring” to conform to the pop-peace code of non-conformity – who constitute “the ugliest of things.”

Today’s peaceniks are fashionably fronted by “Useful Idiots,” ‘60s Leftovers, Hollywood glitterati, pop-music stars and the Leftist political elite.

This sect of les miserables, and their traitorous protagonists both in Congress and out campaigning for the White House, insist that they are “against war but support our troops.”

That’s a BIG lie, a more bald-faced fib, fabrication and falsehood than was ever uttered by the infamous Prevaricator in Chief, Bill Clinton.

Fact is, the underlying supposition of today’s pop-peace envoys was framed by “entertainers” like 60s folk singer Arlo Guthrie, who, in his song “Alice’s Restaurant,” mimics an Army recruit: “I wanna kill! Kill! Eat dead burnt bodies!” to which the recruiting Sergeant replied, “You’re our boy.”

This contention – that those in uniform were “baby killers” – was cemented in the 70s by Leftists such as John Kerry and “Hanoi Jane” Fonda.

Kerry and company are on the frontlines of today’s so-called “peace movement,” and they enjoy unlimited promotion of their propaganda by Leftmedia outlets like Newsweek magazine.

What their mindless minions miss, however, is that the heart of a warrior, a real warrior, desires peace, a real peace. For insight into the hearts of real Patriot warriors, read about Vietnam Vets Roger Ingvalson (USAF) and Roger Helle.

America’s uniformed Patriots don’t put “Peace” bumper stickers on their cars. They put their lives on the line to ensure the constitutional rights of adolescent peaceniks to sport bumper stickers. They are not “stuck in Iraq,” as Kerry claims, because they are ignorant dupes “going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing women and children…”

It is Kerry and his arrogant, tailor-suited colleagues, who terrorize families by refusing to honor their oaths to “Support and Defend” our Constitution.

Peacenik slogans and privileged politicos not withstanding, American Patriotism is alive and well outside the Beltway. Just ask pop artiste Natalie Maines, lead singer for that Texas trio known as the Dixie Chicks. Her condescending comment, ten days before the opening salvo of Operation Iraqi Freedom, is a case study in how not to insult your country, and country-music fans.

At a concert in Europe, Maines told her peacenik fans on that continent, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y'all and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.” She was applauded there, but her remark unleashed a firestorm of protest back home.

Maines feigned regret a week later: “I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect.”

Nobody bought it. The Chicks were chucked off the charts. Their nomination for the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year award two months later was lustily booed, and the award went to Toby Keith, an outspoken critic of such anti-American sentiments as theirs.

Bravo Zulu, Toby!

At the time, President Bush offered this dignified retort: “The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say. If some singers or Hollywood stars feel like speaking out, that’s fine. That’s the great thing about America … in stark contrast to Iraq [under Saddam].”

The Dixie Chicks have never recovered their standing with “salt of the earth” fans of country music, and so were forced to carve out a new niche in a less-patriotic genre – rock music. Maines lamented, “I don’t understand the necessity for patriotism. Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? I don’t see why people care about patriotism.”

Neither do today’s peaceniks, but the Dixie Chicks’ lesson isn’t lost on contemporary pop-peace performers, who are now resorting to lyrics from dead guys like ex-Beatle John Lennon.

Amnesty International is the beneficiary of proceeds from a new music CD, “Instant Karma,” featuring Lennon songs performed by various noisemakers. Ah yes, “imagine” John Lennon, that humble soul who proclaimed at the height of Beatles’ fame in the 60s, “Christianity will go. We’re more popular than Jesus now.”

Fortunately for our nation, wiser heads have prevailed for most of our history. Our Founding Fathers understood the relationship between peace and strength, and this timeless lesson has been passed on from one generation to the next.

“To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace,” said George Washington. “Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace,” said Thomas Jefferson. “A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts,” said James Madison. Or, in ancient Latin, Si vis pacem para bellum.

[Ronald Reagan |http://Reagan2020.US/] certainly understood this principle of “peace through strength” – which is why there no longer exists a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Unfortunately, Bill Clinton did not.

The Clinton administration eviscerated the military in the years after his predecessor’s remarkably successful Operation Desert Storm. It emboldened the nascent jihadi movement by treating terrorism as a “criminal matter” rather than surrogate warfare – warfare that would visit our shores on the morning of 11 September 2001.

Bill Clinton never understood the fundamental relationship between peace and strength.

Neither does Hillary.