Is war ever justified?

Can war ever be "justified"?

  • No

    Votes: 17 40.5%
  • Yes

    Votes: 19 45.2%
  • Maybe if we need the oil bad enought...

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • Who cares. The government/military does not consider "justice" before going to war

    Votes: 5 11.9%
  • Grrrrrr... George Bush was NOT elected President by the people.... grrrr..... rant...rant... grrr...

    Votes: 8 19.0%

  • Total voters
    42
  • Poll closed .
or you could ask Ghandi how peace works :)

and i would disagree about the people who have never had any real anguish being theones to protest war. i think they are just as often the ones who call for war without thinking thru the consequences to others. somebody is going to die in a war. since when is it ok as long as it's not you?
 
habilis, I'm sure Amazon.com sells brilliant history books. This could be a start. *

Except for ENDING Slavery, Fascism, Nazism & Communism, War has Never Solved Anything

- Slavery has ended... in Western countries.
- Fascism has ended... in developed countries.
- Nazism has ended... (almost) everywhere.
- Communism has ended... in the USSR and in most of its Western satellites.

- Slavery and esp. child slavery you can still find in Africa (subsaharian) and South Asia (Bangladesh, for instance).
- Fascism still exists under several forms, in Central Asia especially (Turkmenistan, but also former Afghanistan and Ouzbekistan).
- Nazism is a very specific facet of fascism which has known a unique form in 1930s Germany. It had ended before the war, BTW.
- Communism still exists in conventional (political parties: Eastern Europe, Asia) or non-conventional (terrorist guerilleros: South America, Middle-East) movements. The communist state has vanished, the communist spirit (esp. its revolutionary marxist branch) is still very active.

Hence, I call your statement a very much ethnocentric one. The world does not stop at the Pacific Ocean. *

Ours is a world governed by the use of force, and it's the agressors in the world that set all the rules. Take a look at history.

A second look at history would show you the aggressors are also the losers in the end. And, most of the time, the greatest the empire, the greatest the aggression, the greatest its collapse. History has more than one lessons to teach. *

Peace, as shown throughout history, and as history will show in time about our current crisis with out-of-control despot brutal dictators and fundamentalists, is always and only brought about with strength.

- Saddam Hussein is neither out-of-control or fundamentalist.
- Force has already proved powerless against the Iraqi regime. Force will acheminate body bags to America, not victory.

The Peace Movement is costing thousands of people their lives.

War movement (bellicism) costed 9 million lives from 1914 to 1918 and 50 million lives in 1934 to 1946.

Ask the Holocaust Survivors if war is justified, ask the Iraqi People who are suffering miserably if war is justified.

- The Holocaust survivors will tell you that, if Hitler hadn't found any justification to war, their families would still be alive.
- The Iraqi people will tell you the same, replace 'Hitler' by 'Saddam' and 'war' by 'Kuweit invasion'.
Those cases share the fact that the aggressors had no rational reasons to attack. However, they differ completely by the fact WWII was a mix of offensive and defensive operations, while Gulf War was only offensive.

Hence, the comparison is completely fallacious.

There were peace protestors then trying to get us not to go to war against the Nazi's.

Again, you are mixing up two conflicts *. 1942 and 2003 international relations have strictly nothing in common, your comparison is going nowhere except in the direction of showing you are talking about something for which you have no argumentation but only * passionate bellicism * to provide us with.

It's always the people that have never had any type of real anguish in life, or real suffering that think war is not justified.

Maybe you should learn about this big thingee called India on your planisphere.

Lazy Americans with the easy luxurious lives they lead never think war is justified until they are the ones being exterminated, which is now a reality right at your doorsteps.

Wake up, America ! The Iraqis have opened first concentration camp in California ! Wake up and arm ! We musta fight this stinky Saddam !
*.

some of us woke up on 9|11. Some of us are still asleep.

Some of us take their dreams for realities.

As usual, I'll edit my own writings to add this disclaimer:
- I am not pacifist, I am not anti-American, I am not viscerally against George Bush.
- I have nothing personal against habilis or against anyone here in this board.
- I am ready to truncate my own post if asked either by habilis, by mods/admins or by anyone with a good reason. Ideally, I'd like to be warned about parts of my post which do not suit forums rules, so that I can reformulate them instead of seeing them cut out all of a sudden.
 
toast. with all due respect, in America, that reply would be classified as "Talkin loud, Sayin Nothin". Even with all your elitist dribble you made no counterpoint to mine.

You of all the people in the world should have more respect for America's right to defend itself, but then again how would you know, it's not like your precious Eifle Tower went down with 3,500 dead. It's so easy for you to speak from across the Atlantic, safe and warm with all your Iraqi Oil deals.

Think about how you guys are going to look once the short war is over, and all the secret documents come out about the sinister dealings France had with Saddam. What will the Iraqi people think about you when they find out that France has been buying oil from Saddam, enabling his Grand Palaces and murderous weapons programs to be built while the children starved and died in the streets, selling Saddam parts to make weapons and reactors.

When the war's over(2 months at the longest) and we liberate the Iraqi's(and we will) you're ilk are going to lose all relevance in the world, and no one will listen to another paranoid word you have to say.

It's going to take 50 years, but eventually the Arabs will rejoice the day America showed them freedom, and brought them out of the dark ages in to a cultural rennaisance, the light of the 21st Century.


Oh yeah and about that Hitler thing - Your Welcome...
 
habilis - i sit right here on your side of the pacific and agree with almost everything that toast has said about this. let's not confuse the issue with how safe any of us are and aren't. in today's world, no where is 'safe'. that doesn't mean we should pick up our stick and start swinging at the closest target.
 
Ed, I have a 2 year old baby girl, she's wonderful, as all children are. I dislike war just as much as anybody, but I don't feel comfortable with the idea that my baby girl will have to deal with this problem when it gets really really big in 10 years and instead of conventional weapon proliferation, we have nuclear proliferation.

I don't feel comfortable going to sleep at night thinking that if I support the anti-war socialist agenda, and we just sweep this thing under the rug, and hope for the best, and don't take care of it right now, then my baby girl may one day pay for our inaction in the next, more dramatic attack with her life. After all, what's to stop them? What do they have to fear?



man I knew I was gonna get in too deep when I saw this post... :rolleyes:
 
If it were up to me, i would nuke the entire
middle east off of the face of the earth.
End of problem.
(**cough cough** sarcasm** cough cough**)
 
It's interesting to see that this poll/thread is much more divided than "Is Iraqi war justified"

Defending oneself is a lot different than declaring war on another country, and it is always acceptable to defend oneself. Did we "over" defend ourself in Japan and Germany? and will Saddam "over" defend himself if we attack and if he does, will we be prepared to deal with the consequences?
 
habilis - i fear for the future of the world as well. i fear that we will get ourselves caught in yet another unresolvable conflict that will still be going when my nearly 14 yo son comes of military age. but what i fear most when i hear reasons like that for the iraqi war is that the terrorists are winning. they have struck us with a fear that leaves us looking for enemies rather than finding them, attacking others first in the name of protection, and rationalizing it all with 'they started it'. As long as america chooses to react this way, the terrorists have won, because they have shown to the world just what irrational bullies we are capable of being.
 
When I think of the average people of Iraq; men, women, children and the terrible suffering they have undergone at the hands of Saddam my eyes literally well up. I read a book called Saddams Bombmaker, written by Dr Hamza, Saddams top Nuclear Scientist, a few months ago, and the level of savagery Saddams secret police have wrought on their own people is stunning, even by historical standards. In Dr. Hamzas own words he describes why Saddam wants a nuclear bomb: "To use as a doomsday weapon on Israel if he is mortally threatened" It's this man and his band of killers that we have the big problem with. I think we can all agree on that.

But Ed, I'm proud to be an American, we feed the world, we clothe the world, we educate and empower the impoverished. I'm not going to sink into the guilt trap perpetrated on us by the communists among us that seek to bring everyone into equal misery, rather then the natural balance of powers and wealth we now have.

Communism fails miserably every time it's tried.

After we liberate Iraq you can expect a rise in terrorism for a short while, the fundamentalists aren't going to be happy about "infadels" on their holy land. But the thing is, there going to attack us ANYWAY.

History will show we were right. Have faith.
 
Originally posted by habilis
Peace, as shown throughout history, and as history will show in time about our current crisis with out-of-control despot brutal dictators and fundamentalists, is always and only brought about with strength.

You know I don't agree with Bush and the Republican Party that much, but I wouldn't go so far as to label them an out-of-control despot brutal dictator and fundamentalists.

:rolleyes:

Okay, maybe I would.
 
well race, at least your enjoying your freedom of speech today. A lot of people out there in the oppressed 3rd world are wishing right now that they could say things just as perverted, and just as proudly, but luckily they have people like you protecting and standing up for their oppressors.
 
You want to talk about perverted? Lets look at some of your fascist gems.

Originally posted by habilis
You of all the people in the world should have more respect for America's right to defend itself, but then again how would you know, it's not like your precious Eifle Tower went down with 3,500 dead. It's so easy for you to speak from across the Atlantic, safe and warm with all your Iraqi Oil deals.

Actually terrorism is more a part of daily life in Europe. France as had far more to deal with than the US ever has. And as I recall, wasn't there a plot to fly a plane into the Eiffel Tower that was stopped on the ground when the terrorist were trying to refuel?

And why are we looking out side of our country for the terrorist elements? Oklahoma City didn't start this type of insane panic. Why? It really should have, because it could be that the next great act of terrorism is going to come from the guy next door (or someone returning from Gulf War II).

...anti-war socialist agenda,

Socialist. Communist. Are you watching Bush propaganda films or something? The mind set that if we don't agree with you we must be given some label with a negative connotation, is more dangerous than any act of terrorism. That is the exact type of thing that lifted the Nazis to power.

What next? Book burnings?

But Ed, I'm proud to be an American, we feed the world, we clothe the world, we educate and empower the impoverished.

We (under Bush) ignore and break treaties, and bully smaller nations. We (under Bush) have generated more mistrust in the US than has ever existed. We (under Bush) have become a rogue nation that sees no reason to follow the international laws and treaties that we (before Bush) worked so hard to create.

You really should fear for the future of your daughter. She is going to have to live with your mistakes longer than you.
 
this seems to be making the rounds. it just seems to fit about here -

If You're Happy And You Know It Bomb Iraq - by John Robbins

If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are frisky,
Pakistan is looking shifty
North Korea is too risky,
Bomb Iraq.

If we have no allies with us, bomb Iraq.
If we think that someone's dissed us, bomb Iraq
So to hell with the inspections,
Let's look tough for the elections,
Close your mind and take directions
Bomb Iraq.

It's pre-emptive non-aggression, bomb Iraq.
To prevent this mass destruction, bomb Iraq.
They've got weapons we can't see,
And that's all the proof we need,
If they're not there, they must be there,
Bomb Iraq.

If you never were elected, bomb Iraq.
If your mood is quite dejected, bomb Iraq.
If you think Saddam's gone mad,
With the weapons that he had,
And he tried to kill your dad,
Bomb Iraq.

If corporate fraud is growin', bomb Iraq.
If your ties to it are showin', bomb Iraq.
If your politics are sleazy,
And hiding that ain't easy,
And your manhood's getting queasy,
Bomb Iraq.

Fall in line and follow orders, bomb Iraq
For our might knows not our borders, bomb Iraq
Disagree? We'll call it treason
Let's make war not love this season
Even if we have no reason
Bomb Iraq
 
But Ed, I'm proud to be an American, we feed the world, we clothe the world, we educate and empower the impoverished.

sadly, if we spent half the money on food, clothing and education that will be spent on any war effort, then we would empower a lot more people. we don't even do a decent job of educating our own anymore. budget problems - cut education. increase military spending and find a war. which insures 2 things - depletion of the work force surplus and that those who have power will retain it without challenge from those 'below' them.

let's feed, clothe and educate our own instead of killing others.

peace.
 
Hello habilis.

habilis : toast. with all due respect, in America, that reply would be classified as "Talkin loud, Sayin Nothin". Even with all your elitist dribble you made no counterpoint to mine.

Well, as your first post had strictly no interesting content, it was very hard for me to build a documented counterpoint. I would like you to read back your first post, then mine, then tell me who's "talking loud and saying nothing".
I'll add this expression exists in the rest of the world.
Finally, if evoking country names is 'elitist dribbling' for you... *.

You of all the people in the world should have more respect for America's right to defend itself, but then again how would you know, it's not like your precious Eifle Tower went down with 3,500 dead. It's so easy for you to speak from across the Atlantic, safe and warm with all your Iraqi Oil deals.

So, what should I do ? Shut up and let you take your revenge ? Come on, is that Prehistory ?!
- First, attacking Iraq is way different from repyling to 9/11 attacks.
- Moreover, we French people know what terrorism is about too, even though we've got no Twin Towers equivalent we had bombs in the metro for example.
- From where I stand, you are the one on the other side of the Atlantic, safe and warm with all his Iraqi oil deals.

Think about how you guys are going to look once the short war is over

LOL, that was what WWI French soldiers leaving their families said when they left their homes in 1914. If you remember well, Vietnam war was supposed to last 6 months, Bosnia and Chechnya were supposed to be kind of Blizkriegs, Afghanistan was supposed to be an immediate and ponctual response to 9/11.
Instead of that, WWI lasted 4 years, Vietnam wars lasted almost thirty years, Bosnia lasted over ten years, Chechnya has not stopped yet and Bin Laden is still training his factions.

all the secret documents come out about the sinister dealings France had with Saddam.

Is that supposed to be a threat ? I am much more worried about the sinister dealings USA had with Saddam that will come out. You see, as France does not support war, the Saddam administration has all interest in burning dealings between France and Iraq, whereas it has all interest in producing as much evidence as it can that USA has secret interests in Iraq.

In brief, you should the one worrying. I'm not even sure you should be, though: we already know 90% of the US/Hussein secret agreements. Compared to them, French/Iraqi oil deals almost seem honest.

What will the Iraqi people think about you when they find out that France has been buying oil from Saddam, enabling his Grand Palaces and murderous weapons programs to be built while the children starved and died in the streets, selling Saddam parts to make weapons and reactors.

Is this a desperate attempt to make me laugh ? Nine weapons out of ten in Iraq are US-made. The chemical patents and research programs were built from American ones. Is this a real trace of ignorance from you ? Didn't you know Iraqi WMDs are based on the stuff your own country taught them to build up ?

When the war's over(2 months at the longest) and we liberate the Iraqi's(and we will) you're ilk are going to lose all relevance in the world, and no one will listen to another paranoid word you have to say.

- The very simple fact you think a war with a country like Iraq can last for 2 months only shows what you know * about Iraq, about Middle East conflicts in general and about the history your own country shares with Iraq.

- The USA are the ones losing all relevance here.

First, they show total inefficience in international relations to rally other coutries to their cause (except for Great-Britain, well, I won't comment on that :D).
Moreover, they confirm the fact they're completely stubborn and blind as well as inconscient and obnoxious by announcing a unilateral war on Iraq is they don't get what they want by diplomatic means, which demonstrates the Bush administration total inaptitude and 'hawk' (read: bellicist) nature.
On top of that, the USA are showing to the whole Third World they are no model to follow to build an intelligent, pacifist country. They had already lost most relevance before 1991, but now that they are the only superpower left and still acting as dumb bellicists, their model is slowly collapsing.

- To end, the word 'paranoid' applies to the guys who shout Saddam is a threat and that he should be bombed as soon as possible, not to the guys who say peace is still conceivable without war.
Your administration is trying to make Saddam appear as threat, mine is not. Your administration is making comparison between terrorism and Iraq, aiming at scaring the US people that tomorrow, if they don't go to war with Iraq, they'll receive some other planes on the head. Your_administration is hence using well-known techniques of what can be called state terrorism to alarm the people and to justify, in the most pathetic way, their deplorable war project.
The USA are the world most well-known paranoids, sorry to tell you that. Don't you remember anti-communist propaganda ? McCarthyism ? "Argh ! The reds will invade us if we don't strik'em now !", "Argh! The Viets will come and kill our children if we don't beat'em today !"... Do you think I'm inventing those ? Do I need to give you more history books reference ? Or would that be too 'elitist' for you to open a book ? :rolleyes:

It's going to take 50 years, but eventually the Arabs will rejoice the day America showed them freedom, and brought them out of the dark ages in to a cultural rennaisance, the light of the 21st Century.5

Yeah ! True ! And a hundred flowers will bloom ! And Islam will get 50 stars on its green flag ! Yeah ! And jihad will turn into football and prayer into ...
Please, don't sound * like this again. Read again what you wrote: you sound like Mao preaching for the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which was opposite of what one can call 'renaissance'. The light of the 21rst century... :rolleyes:
I can't understand how your own country's history has not taught you war has never brought any light to the world since 1945. :confused:

(I'm secretely imagining an Arab fundamentalist: "Hiya people, my name is Muhammad, I'm an Syrian terrorist, and you know what ? The day Bush nuked Iraq, I saw the light: that was freedom ! Getting bombed is being liberated ! Yes ! So please US, bomb Syria so we can be free too" :p )

Oh yeah and about that Hitler thing - Your Welcome...

What an adequate end to your post. * I could not expect less from you.

Usual Toast Disclaimer (now well known as UTD :) ):
- I am not pacifist, I am not anti-American, I am not viscerally against George Bush.
- I have nothing personal against habilis or against anyone here in this board.
- I am ready to truncate my own post if asked either by habilis, by mods/admins or by anyone with a good reason. Ideally, I'd like to be warned about parts of my post which do not suit forums rules, so that I can reformulate them instead of seeing them cut out all of a sudden.

This post is somewhat offensive. I'll understand all requests for reformulation. But please mods/admins, ask me instead of just cutting it out ! I'll promise I'll modify it quickly :D.
 
Still answering habilis.

Do you know throwing bombs on Iraq will multiply the terrorists' will for revenge ? You are increasing the risk for your daughter, not decreasing it.

In fact, Iraq is one of the very few countries not to support state terrorist organizations in the whole Middle East. Iraq has thus no terrorist reply to your bombs. But believe me, the rest of the Arab world counts many terrorist organizations that will answer back to your bombs...

Don't you understand this war logic has no sense ? Can't you compare it with the Israel/Palestine problem ?
Israel opens new colony > Palestine terrorists reply with a bomb > In return, Tsahal invades Gaza strip and kill a few people > In return, Palestine terrorists reply with another bomb > Violence increases, popular upheaval rises, chances for peace and calm decreases...
*

I need to add somewhere in this post Saddam has no nuclear power as of today, as proven by UN inspections. Suspicion is not enough to bomb a country.

I'm proud to be an American, we feed the world, we clothe the world, we educate and empower the impoverished.

Who do you think you are ? The "white man and his heavy burden" ?

Was it useful to precise you are a neo-colonialist ? The rest of your posts already shows it.
- You feed the world but also ruin Indian agriculture with transgenic wheat.
- You clothe the world but also provide us with shoes you ask Indonesian children under 8 to make for you.
- You educate the world with what ? With war ? What about your own people ? You think they're educated ? Why don't you take a look at world stats about US education ? PISA studies ? OECD statistics ? Percentage of Americans going to university ?
Clue: 26% 15-yrs old Americans unable to locate their own country on a map :eek:. Germany: 27% :eek: :eek:. France: 17% :eek:. Source: 2001 PISA study.

Communism fails miserably every time it's tried.

Colonialism fails miserably every time it's tried too... Not to say the USA are colonialist nor neocolonialist (same statements can easily apply to my won country :D).

After we liberate Iraq you can expect a rise in terrorism for a short while, the fundamentalists aren't going to be happy about "infadels" on their holy land. But the thing is, there going to attack us ANYWAY.

So you say you represent the civilized world and your only answer to the Iraq problem is to bomb them ?
Also, 'infidels' take an 'i'. :rolleyes:

History will show we were right. Have faith.

Cold War has shown bellicism has no more sense. I have no faith in war. *
 
Ed wrote: Let's feed, clothe and educate our own instead of killing others.

peace.


I think we all agree here.
 
this thread is very hard for me to moderate as i am so involved in it. but i would like to ask everyone to read back over their last few posts and pplease remove any comments that belittle or question the intelligence of other members participating in it. there are no reasons for us to start throwing verbal stones at each other here. the unfortunate fact is that our words here are not likely to change anything by themselves, much less what is going to happen or not. let's at least try to face this froma higher ground and not from the fears we have of those who see it differently than we do.

again, peace.
 
My posts did contain many "comments that belittle or question the intelligence of other members", esp. the one I was answering. They have been replaced by * stars.

Thanks for involving the members in censorship. I could not expect better way to moderate this forum than to ask its members to engage their self-responsibility and cut their own sayings.
 
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