William S. Lind :collection (merged thread)

[JMA]

Your original request was rather different. viz.:

Here's a formalization of the proof that I used:
1. Buchan does not like wars and tries to stop them (true from Wikipedia)
2. Buchan authorized Canada's declaration of war (true from Wikipedia)
3. If a person claims to have certain beliefs about what is right but behaves in a way that disagrees with those beliefs, then that person is a hypocrite. (Paraphrase into a conditional of the meaning of hypocrite-true by definition.)
4. Buchan said one thing/claimed certain beliefs, and he behaved differently (from premises 1 and 2 above by instantiation and conjunction introduction)
5 Buchan is a hypocrite (from 3 and 4 by Modus Ponens)

So the "cheap shot" I posted was actually much more watered down than what I actually concluded from what I read.

Wow... and you were teaching ethics and logic at some point?

On this you get a Fail grade.

Lets start here with your man:

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, speech, Jan. 10, 1946

So Eisenhower shared Buchan's belief based on experience of personal exposure to war.

Therefore his attempts to prevent another war are understandable, acceptable and logical.

But what role did Buchan personally have in the Canadian Declaration of War against Germany which led to your labelling him a hypocrite?

I don't wish to humiliate you and you can curse the inaccuracies of Wikipedia if you wish but...

A little education:

Going to war? 'Parliament will decide'

The Statute of Westminster of 1931, negotiated by King's government but enacted in Britain when the Conservative government of R.B. Bennett was in office, had been a declaration of independence, giving Canada the powers in foreign policy to accompany its full control over domestic policy.

But if the nation was independent in fact, it did nothing to exert itself on the international stage. In power again from 1935, King said little as the world drifted toward war. If they listened at all, the Nazis, the Fascists and the militarists in Tokyo heard only "Parliament will decide" from Ottawa.

And Parliament did. Summoned back to Ottawa, the members of the House of Commons and the Senate heard the governor-general, Lord Tweedsmuir, tell them that the government proposed to go to war at Britain's side. Yes, the country's tiny regular military and naval forces and weak reserves had been called to the colours; yes, action had begun to round up potential subversives under authority of the War Measures Act of 1914; but no, Canada was not yet at war and would not be at war until the Speech from the Throne was accepted by Parliament. Then, and only then, could George VI, king of Canada, declare war on behalf of the Dominion of Canada.

So Buchan was not in any position of authority to 'authorise Canada's declaration of war' as he was merely the Governor General at the time. See this for how the system worked:

Declaration of war by Canada

I quote:

Nazi Germany
After Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the United Kingdom and France declared war on September 3. To assert Canada's independence from the UK, as already established by the Statute of Westminster 1931, Canada's political leaders decided to unnecessarily seek the approval of the federal parliament to declare war. Parliament was not scheduled to return until October 2, but returned to session early on September 7 to consider the declaration of war.

The Senate approved a declaration of war on September 8 and the House of Commons approved it on September 9. The following day, Prime Minister Mackenzie King and the Cabinet drafted an Order in Council to that effect. Canadian diplomats brought the document to King George VI, at the Royal Lodge, Windsor Great Park, for his signature, whereupon Canada had officially declared war on Nazi Germany. In his capacity as the government's official recorder for the war effort, Leonard Brockington noted: "King George VI of England did not ask us to declare war for him—we asked King George VI of Canada to declare war for us.

Let's complete your education with the radio broadcast by Prime Minister Mackenzie King:

1939: Canada declares war on Germany

He begins with:

For months, indeed for years, the shadow of impending conflict in Europe has been ever present. Through these troubled years, no stone has been left unturned, no road unexplored in the patient search for peace.

So ends the lesson.

I would suggest that John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir PC GCMG GCVO CH is innocent of the hypocrisy you accuse him of. Only an apology and retraction from you remains necessary.

Finally, Google is indeed your friend and the Internet is powerful but the golden rule to confirm your sources before sticking your neck out is the most powerful of all.