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Originally Posted by Mazer
Knife, I think you'd be just as opposed to a war against an other country as a war against an abstract concept. The war on terror has included attacks on other countries. So far we've engaged in a war against Taliban controlled portions of Afghanistan and against Iraq, and those campaigns have been very successful. Iraq had been attacking our military forces for a decade before we finally decided to fight back; they broke the cease-fire and in essence the first Gulf War only just ended a year ago after twelve years of hostile action against us. And yet you act like winning that war was a bad thing to do. Just come out and say it, you're against all wars in general whether a geven war is winnable or not.
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me, an anti-war leftie dove? lol, i'm not that simple and neither is the world. no, i think war is a an occasionally useful and necessary evil....but you have to test the decision to go to war with certain questions:
-is it clearly in our national interest?
(Gulf War - yes...Afghanistan - yes....Iraq - debatable)
-does it have clearly defined, measurable objectives and exit scenarios?
(Gulf War - yes...Afghanistan - yes....Iraq - no)
-is it winnable?
(Gulf War - yes...Afghistan - could be if we actually finished it....Iraq - no)
Iraq fails this test miserably, and what's worse, we had not met our objectives in Afghanistan before we rushed into Iraq (Taliban is resurgent, Al Qaeda active, democracy can't get off the ground).
so, since you're not too clear on my views, let me be more specific - i'm against war that does not meet the above criteria.
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Originally Posted by Mazer
The problem here is one of semantics: a 'war' on an abstract concept is in fact not a war. War is a term used by media and politicans to highten the suspense. A more appropriate word would be struggle against terrorism, poverty, drugs, etc., and that word would cancel out c and d in your list and keep b in check. Are people going to start using this word instead? How about we start doing it here and see if it catches on?
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i agree it's an issue of semantics and i think the term "war" is sorely abused by our government - struggle would be a more appopriate, but your leaders like the word war coz it's a lot easier to sell a war than a struggle....and it's a lot easier to explan a body count. it creates the illusion that it's something we could win.