AUGUST 27th - What is it Good For?



On this day in 1928, representatives of 15 nations, including the big players from WWI, signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact in Paris, France. Soon after another 47 countries agreed to the terms of the pact, effectively demonstrating that the majority of the civilized world had reached a consensus. What was this consensus? The Kellogg-Briand Pact basically made war illegal. Judging by the fact there was another WW followed by the suffix II not too long after that pact was signed, I would have to call the whole endeavor an abject failure. Not that I fault the attempt. Why not try?

Alright people, how can we prevent another war from breaking out?
Oh, I know. How about we make war illegal?
Illegal? War isn’t illegal already?
Not on paper it isn’t.
You think people will follow that?
Of course they will. It’ll be the law.
How will we enforce it?
We’ll arrest them.
What if they resist?
We’ll take them by force.
What if they kill us?
We’ll kill them.
Isn’t that a war?
I see your point.
So isn’t this pact kind of pointless.
You have a better idea?
We could threaten the major participants with paper cuts.
Those really hurt.
Damn straight they do.

Sadly the paper-enforcement was not ratified leaving the muscle behind the sentiment rather lax. It’s like that guy in your neighborhood that has the Beware of Dog sign on his fence. It might keep you away for a while, but once you realize that you can fit Brutus inside a fanny pack, you don’t particularly fret about trespassing. Frank Kellogg did win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 for his work on the pact, so there’s that. And it’s not like they just give those things out.

This day has been Marked.

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