This extremely offensive, to all those who sacrificed, "active evil", emptied Germany's prison camps, with their gas chambers and ovens!
[Most of the occupants, much like the author, completely bewildered pacifists, who wouldn't pick up a rifle, to save themselves, let alone loved ones, family or friends!]
And gave commentators like the author, the continuing right to voice their opinions, or right to offend, free from the fear of reprisals.
This so called peace has a price, and can only ever be retained, via eternal vigilance!
Almost everyone pines for peace!
None more so, than the the soldiers we send into harms way, to fight, sacrifice, or die for us, or in our name!
I lost 13 close blood relatives, to this active evil, and should I visit said memorial, I would march right on past the peace symbol, and seek out and silently honour their names and the sacrifices they made!
[The only reason to visit such a place, the shores of Gallipoli, or the fields of Flanders, or the beaches of Dunkirk, or the Kakoda track!]
Just so the rest of us can live in comparative peace, while we search for personal fulfilment or our so-called dreams.
Rhrosty.

Since the gory days of the Coliseum, where gladiators fought to the death for the entertainment of the ignorant masses, humans have been fascinated with killing.

Of course, today the MSM presents us with war as entertainment still as does Hollywood. We just watched the slaughter of the Gazans by the psychos who run Israel and we saw various powers cheering for both sides of the conflict even though one of them is occupied, impoverished and without any real defenses. There is no nobility or compassion in modern warfare.

We are conditioned to accept war from birth. It is glorified and it makes money and it appeals to our base nature which is racist and infinitely greedy.

War will destroy us eventually. You'll know it is happening when the nukes start falling. That will mean we have passed the point of no return, when we finally become completely insane.

We accept war but we don't accept peace! We will pay a heavy price for this bizarre foolishness.

‘Most of the occupants, much like the author, completely bewildered pacifists, who wouldn't pick up a rifle, to save themselves, let alone loved ones, family or friends!’

You have no way of knowing what those ‘completely bewildered pacifists’ would do in a genuine attack on or occupation of their country. Neither do you have any way of knowing how they would defend themselves or their families in the event of a personal attack.

Pacifism is not cowardice - it's the ability to discern which conflicts are worth fighting and dying for and which aren't. Pacifists are not opposed to genuine defence of countries or persons, violent or otherwise. What they oppose is the exploitation and glorification of war and militarism as a means of driving imperial, political and economic agendas.

Which is the better indication of ‘complete bewilderment’ – the blind, unquestioning support for all our military involvements past and present, or the pacifist’s clear-sighted ability to focus on their morality and context

War will always get more attention than peace because it simplifies things; it turns the complex mess of life into a simple binary story of good and evil, action and reaction, glory and defeat. And unfortunately if we go too long without a major war, we seem to get tired of complicated solutions, and to long for some simple exciting account of things, so that we can pretend we understand what it's all about.

It's no coincidence that the Y2K bug and the ozone hole panic followed on from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War; or that the War on Drugs has become the War on Terrorism has become the War on Islam -- and now the War on Climate Change. Until we shed the need for a common enemy and the desire to cast everything in black and white, there will always be those who are ready to acquire power by manufacturing imaginary dangers, and try to prove their reality by squandering vast amounts of money and countless lives.

Chamberlain was a typical pacifist, and believed that it was actually possible to appease a warmongering dictator, as, so it would seem, almost every other pacifist?
Pacifism doesn't ever or necessarily infer cowardice, just completely unrealistic expectations, like those on very public display, as Chamberlain gave ground and sacrificed nations, while he and other recalcitrant pacifists, sought to do a deal with the devil.
I don't know who glorifies war, certainly not returned servicemen, or those who had to do all the fighting and dying.
Nor is building memorials or commemorating personal sacrifice.
Those who claim some of us glorify war, are judging others on their own expectations, or what they would do, if they but stood in others shoes!
Serving Soldiers go where they are sent, and fight if they are required to, not because they want to or agree with the decision makers!
Wars are invariably the result of one or two very powerful decision makers, making very stupid decisions!
Sure Hollywood and other movie makers glorify war?
But their wars are always fiction; and most of the so called heroes bullet proof and totally devoid of fear, certainly not the knee buckling fear, that is every soldier's experience, when ever under live round fire!
As for the Roman Colosseum, I've never ever been to one, so can't actually accurately report on what happened; or indeed, how the average, "normal" sober citizens actually reacted or FELT, or if they ever went?
Perhaps the real reasons wine swilling drunken devotees went, was to watch donkeys doing virgins, which was apparently part of the so called, introductory entertainment?
Today, some of us are not too different, be we ambulance chasers getting off on blood and guts; and or human suffering!
Or glued to a terminal, playing blood letting, desensitizing blood sport games, or completely unnatural porn/bestiality; and in so doing, progressively developing a total lack of empathy, for real people, experiencing or living with real pain, fear or danger?
Rhrosty.