High Masculine Tones

The following passage, from ee cummings' six nonlectures, was not written with our interminable War On All Evil in mind, but it could have been:

. . . "Security?" I marvel to myself
''what is that? Something negative, undead, suspicious and
suspecting; an avarice and an avoidance; a self-surrendering
meanness of withdrawal; a numerable complacency and an in-
numerable cowardice. Who would be 'secure'? Every and any
slave. No free spirit ever dreamed of 'security'--or, if he did, he
laughed; and lived to shame his dream. No whole sinless sinful
sleeping waking breathing human creature ever was (or could
be) bought by, and sold for, 'security.' How monstrous and how
feeble seems some unworld which would rather have its too
than eat its cake!"

And since I'm quoting poets writing prose, there's this more pointed analysis by Adrienne Rich:

To be "antiwar" is not a simple position. It means disentangling the strands that connect the weapons industry with the lack of will for diplomacy and coherent foreign policy. It means understanding what the militarization of a society costs, economically and socially and in terms of civil liberties, the propaganda of violence as both heroism and efficient solution. It means probing the official versions to reveal how and why we are being driven toward aggression. To be "antiwar" is to be for public debate and knowledge, the foundations of democratic polity.

::Adrienne Rich, The Nation: Making the Connections