What's Wrong With "Give Peace a Chance?"

Question: A couple of weeks ago, I attended a lecture (I was required to by a professor for a grade in a course) about ecology. Instead of ecology, the speaker talked mostly about how stupid President Bush is and endorsed the John Lennon song "Give Peace a Chance." Personally, I think President Bush is a lot smarter than the speaker and there is something about that song that irritates me. I'm not sure what. What do you think of that song? Richard Hardin, Knoxville, Tennessee

Answer: Richard, it is probably your common sense that causes you to be irritated by that song. The words to that song simply don't make any sense. There are several ways of looking at it. One of the most obvious is to ask, what were we doing on December 6, 1941? What were we doing on September 10, 2001? WE WERE GIVING PEACE A CHANCE! And what happened? We got attacked. We got attacked while giving peace a chance. Another way to look at this is that by suggesting giving peace a chance, the implication is that war is our fault. If only we would surrender and go home, then there would be peace. The problem is that our enemies don't want peace. They want victory. They want to hurt us. They want to kill us. They don't want peace at all. The song implies that we are the evil ones and if we would only quit, then there would be peace. It is total nonsense. It is the attitude of a non-thinking person. That's what I think of that song.