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Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.– Tacitus, Agricola, (98), end of ch. 30.

Translation: To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. Oxford Revised Translation (at Project Gutenberg)

Tacitus is quoting the British chief, Calgacus, in his speech to British soldiers, stating the irony between Rome’s acts of empire and the inscription upon Roman medals of "peace given to the world." Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (they make a desert, and call it peace) is often quoted alone.

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. It is not merely that at present the rule of naked force obtains almost everywhere… Bully-worship, under various disguises, has become a universal religion, and such truisms as that a machine-gun is still a machine-gun even when a "good" man is squeezing the trigger… have turned into heresies." – George Orwell, Review of Power: A New Social Analysis by Bertrand Russell in Adelphi (January 1939)

While continuing the 9th year of war in Afghanistan with all objective evidence demonstrating the US invasion is an illegal War of Aggression, refusing criminal investigation for torture despite all case law declaring waterboarding definitively as torture, despite over a year’s history of lying about Iran threatening to “wipe Israel off the map” and collaborating in the same lying war rhetoric against Iran that began his predecessor’s wars, and his defense of Israel in their enslavement of Gaza in the world’s largest concentration camp, Barack Obama and the Nobel Committee challenged the world’s peace advocates and sane citizens with an act George Orwell would sadly nod to in recognition: calling the criminal gang-leader of empire, war, and death as a leader for “peace.”

This, on top of Obama’s silence and inaction with a million children dying monthly from preventable poverty while the US refuses to fund the 0.7% of gross national income we’ve promised. Ending poverty has a historically perfect record of reducing population growth and easing environmental stress from desperate people. Given a million children’s deaths every month, we can conservatively assume ten times that number suffer so horrendously from the effects of poverty that they wish for death to obtain peace. This is the only type of “peace” award Obama qualifies for; or perhaps an award for acting as a peacemaker.

In 1938, the world’s top-income performer Charlie Chaplin began production of his film The Great Dictator, from his commitment that “Hitler must be laughed at.” Below is his famous 5-minute speech at the end of the film for peace, and the transcript.

We must laugh at, ridicule, and contrast the actions of Mr. Obama and the leadership of both political parties with real peace. Real peace would establish a Cabinet position in a Department of Peace for their contribution rather than merely consulting with the Department of War Defense. Real peace would give the less than one percent of our income to help suffering children rather than watching them die and calling it “peace.” Real peace would acknowledge the truth of our illegal Wars of Aggression, prosecute torture, stop threatening more war in Iran, and open Truth and Reconciliation process to find out all of the truth.

As always, share this article with all who say they want peace. If you appreciate my work, please subscribe for free by clicking under the article title. Feel free to use my library of work as a resource.

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white.

We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness - not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there's room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate - has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man - cries for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say: 'Do not despair.' The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural!

Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St Luke, it is written the kingdom of God is within man not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful - to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security.

By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason - a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us unite!”