Thomas Paine: Pre-Emptive War

"Fight Russia in Ukraine, so we don't have to fight them here."

"And were America, instead of becoming an example to the Old World of good and moral government and civil manners, or, if they like it better, of gentlemanly conduct toward other nations, to set up the character of ruffian, that of word and blow, and the blow first, and thereby give the example of pulling down the little that civilization has gained upon barbarism, her independence, instead of being an honor and a blessing, would become a curse upon the world and upon herself."
Thomas Paine, To the Citizens of the United States VI, 1802-1806.

Paine’s eight Letters to the Citizens of the United States have been referred to on this blog on several occasions and will continue to be. They were written when Paine returned from his adventures, imprisonment, and mortal illness in France. He was 65 years old and he had seen a lot of mankind and governments. He was not altogether pleased with the America to which he returned. His eight letters began almost immediately on his return and the ended just three years before his death in 1809. Paine had never fully recovered from the sickness that overcame him while imprisoned in Paris. After four more years of illness, he suffered what he called a “stroke of apoplexy” that left him injured from a fall down the stairs, utterly numb to his body, slowed down, but fully cognitively able. These letters were written in the face of illness and his impending end. And they were written in the face of an America engaged in a struggle between the egalitarian impulses of 1776 and the emergence of the American commercial and expansionist juggernaut.

Stay tuned; leave a comment with your thoughts below; share with your friends, family, and interested persons. More coming.