Don't be silly. If I meant that, I'd have said it.

In other words ... In one issue of Aiki News, Ueshiba is quoted as yelling at his students for doing "soft" techniques. He yells at them that it took him 20 years of doing hard techniques before he got to soft.

So, maintaining what George Ledyard states is a core of aikido is fine. But if you aren't able to martially back it up, then you aren't doing Ueshiba's aikido.

From http://www.aikidojournal.com/article?articleID=449

For those who say there is no resistance in aikido, it pretty well speaks for itself when Ueshiba states to his audience, "You are probably thinking that we cannot possibly do these techniques without some sort of collusion between us." Mull that over. For those that are having problems, definition of collusion: secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose. In other words, Ueshiba had active resistance.

Ukemi at 50, 60, 70? 99% of the ukemi Morihei Ueshiba was doing at that age was internally, not falling on the floor. He was still tossing his students around.

Not fighting? Sure. I've heard quite a few high ranking martial artists from karate to jujutsu say that. It's a very worthy goal. But Ueshiba wasn't a pacifist and he wasn't a peacenik. He didn't have to fight because he was so good, few could touch him. If you aren't working towards that goal, you aren't doing Ueshiba's aikido. It's at that pinnacle where you have the skills that you can opt to not fight. Otherwise, there is no option about fighting. Without the martial skills, you either completely avoid it at all costs or you get beaten down. You want to completely avoid it? That isn't what Ueshiba did, so you aren't doing his aikido.

Aikido can be a peaceful, loving, blending, flowing spiritual experience. But even Ueshiba showed that before you get there, there is 20 years of hard training, challengers, resistance, and fights. Unless you're on that same road, you aren't doing Ueshiba's aikido.

Doesn't mean you take on the UFC. Doesn't mean you go out and pick fights (unless you want to be like Shioda). But, you better have a good honest look at yourself and understand your abilities and whether or not they stack up to peer level martial artists. Do the research. It didn't take Ueshiba, Shioda, Tomiki, etc more than 20 years to become giants. And they also had very active, resistant type training environments. Oh, wait, maybe not. Wasn't the old Kobukan dojo called the "aiki bunny dojo"? Oh, my bad. Maybe they were just flowing around themselves in a nice dance.
http://www.aikidojournal.com/article?articleID=343

Skip the UFC, skip the MMA, skip dojo storming; but take a good hard look at Ueshiba and his training. Otherwise, hey, there's always rationalizations.