Grandpa's answer continued,(part 3)

After a bit of silence grandpa continued by saying; “ Wars lost can be justified. It was just that Germany lost in WWII in view of the concentration camps. It was a just loss for Japan in WWII in view of their attack on Pearl Harbor. We declare that it was a just loss for England in regards to our revolutionary war. In fact we declared that justification in our Declaration of Independence. We declare that the South’s loss in the Civil war as just with the freeing of the slaves. We must remember, boy, there are always two sides to every war not just one. And if winning was a just outcome for one side then it must follow that losing was a just outcome for the other side.”

A smile came across my face as I began to see what grandpa was saying and I just nodded silently in agreement.

“Now, boy, the United States is considered the super power in the world. That status is the result of our economic strength as well as our military strength. But, being a super power does not make us right in all we say or do. Men run our government and man is not a perfect being so he will make errors of judgement. This is true even in the case of wars declared and waged.

This is where I believe the founding fathers showed their greatest genius by creating a federal government of three independent branches. The three branches contain different numbers of men, the executive branch consists of a single person, the judicial branch consists of nine members and the legislative branch consists of over 500 members. And it is the use of the democratic process that each branch comes to a decision. And the founding fathers placed the decision of declaring war in the hands of the legislative branch.

One reason for this, in my mind, is that it is far harder to get a majority vote for war from the branch that contains the most persons. It would require very good reasons for a majority to vote for it. Another reason would be the nature and purpose of this branch of government. Each member of the House, when voting, is voting as a representative of every soldier and every future soldier that makes his district his home, thus declaring the willingness of that soldier to risk his life, even sacrifice that life based on his representative’s vote. Senators are voting as the representative of his or her state thus declaring that state’s willingness to send their sons and daughters to wage that war if declared. The declaration of war is the heaviest burden a leader can possess and should be done only with the greatest of deliberation and debate.“

Grandpa went quiet again allowing me time to digest the words he was saying. But one question remained in my mind. What does this have to do with giving aid to the enemy as he claimed the guest speaker was doing?