This has been a great, spirited discussion, but I'm off-line now for the weekend myself!Spaw--I really have an excellent grasp of historical knowledge about the U.S., Britain, and Ireland. I did not say "all" British and American...
I said "too many"
It is a very real problem, in my opinion. The bohemian bourgeois in both countries, which have a dangerous tendency to talk a lot, strike poses of an inauthentic social radicalism, and behave like right wing reactionaries whenever the subject of political violence rears it's ugly head.
Pacifist and non-violent movements have led too many naive lambs to the slaughter, in my opinion...from the American South, to El Salvador, to India/Pakistan.
How do you justify those deaths? How do you justify Gandhi's role in the partitioning of India and Pakistan, which has now put the world at very real risk of nuclear war?