No Peace without Victory
No Peace without Victory (1861-1865)
In World War one, Woodrow Wilson insisted that the allies would negotiate only with a democratic government in Germany, and the Armistice did not go into effect until the Kaiser abdicated. In World War two the allies demanded the unconditional surrender of Axis governments in order to destroyed these governments and install new pones in their place. Both sides in the American Civil War feared that regime change would be the results of losing the war. By 1863, however the death and wounded of half a million soldiers had replaced the rage with a longing for peace. Seems like in the American Civil War, there was no possibility of peace without victory for either one side or the other. If there is to be peace one of two of the events has to happen. Either the Union was to be maintained, which would mean that the rebellion of the South had to be crushed, or that rebellion had to succeed in the establishment of a nation conceived on slavery. Lincoln did not believe that the Confederate agents had skills of negotiating. And if they did the Union president knew that his Southern “counterparts inflexible conditioned for peace was Confederate independence.” There are other conflicts that are not worth fighting for and where an honorable compromise can be made between two sides. I think that there is at least the possibility of a peace that satisfies both sides, even if neither side gets everything they want. Sometimes, there can be no peace without victory. This happens when there are only two options and an impossibility to compromised between the two, or when the argument involves matters of principle where there are only two options: yes or no. In such a case, any yes is victory to one side and any no is victory to the other.
In World War one, Woodrow Wilson insisted that the allies would negotiate only with a democratic government in Germany, and the Armistice did not go into effect until the Kaiser abdicated. In World War two the allies demanded the unconditional surrender of Axis governments in order to destroyed these governments and install new pones in their place. Both sides in the American Civil War feared that regime change would be the results of losing the war. By 1863, however the death and wounded of half a million soldiers had replaced the rage with a longing for peace. Seems like in the American Civil War, there was no possibility of peace without victory for either one side or the other. If there is to be peace one of two of the events has to happen. Either the Union was to be maintained, which would mean that the rebellion of the South had to be crushed, or that rebellion had to succeed in the establishment of a nation conceived on slavery. Lincoln did not believe that the Confederate agents had skills of negotiating. And if they did the Union president knew that his Southern “counterparts inflexible conditioned for peace was Confederate independence.” There are other conflicts that are not worth fighting for and where an honorable compromise can be made between two sides. I think that there is at least the possibility of a peace that satisfies both sides, even if neither side gets everything they want. Sometimes, there can be no peace without victory. This happens when there are only two options and an impossibility to compromised between the two, or when the argument involves matters of principle where there are only two options: yes or no. In such a case, any yes is victory to one side and any no is victory to the other.