It is often noted that it can be hard for democracies to fight wars because of changing public opinion.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.
The government may change faces from time to time, but it's not like we fight wars for democracy - we fight wars for capitalism and for oil.
Democracy actually requires that the whole public be able to see common problems and address them and step outside of their own sort of narrow self-interest to do so.
When the initial effort of political and business leaders to influence public opinion on an issue is to threaten rather than to engage and persuade, they further arouse public opposition rather than win support.
Unfortunately, the true force which propels our endless political disputes, our constant struggles for political advantage, is often not our burning concern for democracy, it is often of our dedication to the principle of the rule of law.
In a world which is armed to its teeth with nuclear weapons, every quarrel or difference of opinion may lead to violence of a kind quite different from what is possible today.
Public opinion shapes our destinies and guides the progress of human affairs.
Democracies do not go to war. War is not our expression of thought.
People have a very political way of looking at war, and that's understandable.
Support for peaceful reform by the people themselves is the right way to promote democracy, not the use of force.
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