WAR: In general

[Texasgal]

Just curious how DU'ers feel about this issue. I have seen lots of posts regarding the Iraqi conflict, but very little written about Afghanistan.

So what is your general view on WAR?

[HillDem]

1. Personally,

I think we should send 10k marines into Darfur.

[SteppingRazor]

2. Other: I am against MOST war..

I think WWII was necessary, but I don't think we shoud have fought a single war since then.

[HillDem]

4. What about the Balkans?

We saved a lot of people there

[SteppingRazor]

9. Are you saying we should have gone into Rwanda?

How about China when it annexed Tibet in 1949?

Cuba when Castro took over?

Chile when Pinochet came to power?


My point is, should we invade any country where war crimes are being committed? If not, why should the Balkans be the exception?

[HillDem]

11. Point taken

I still think we have should do what we can, though.

[bnr65432]

21. I also think we should hav stayed peaceful scince world war II

[TaleWgnDg]

3. There is no category for . . .

"I am for war but only if necessary; e.g., I am against Bush's Iraq War."
.

[Fenris]

5. My opinions on wars are formulated when they are brought up.

I was opposed to the Iraq invasion. I was not opposed to the invasion of Afghanistan. I just wished the military escapades of the president had stopped there.

[Texasgal]

7. Yes.. I agree with that synopsis...

I really do not understand the Iraqi conflict or how ANYBODY can be for it! :shrug:

[marmar]

6. I'm seeing war thru Howard Zinn's eyes lately...

You could argue that WWII was an important war to fight in because it prevented a genocidal fascist kook from taking over the world, but who was it that allowed him to become a power anyway. Britain, France and the rest of Western Europe turned a blind eye as long as they weren't affected by Hitler, and U.S. corporations sold him products to operate the Nazi murder machine more efficiently. Behind every war, there are these little side stories that lay the groundwork.

[BL611]

17. Of course war is caused

by diplomatic failure (often influence by powerful interests), that however DOES NOT change the fact that when war is necessary it must be fought.

[BL611]

18. Of course war is caused

by diplomatic failure (often influence by powerful interests), that however DOES NOT change the fact that when war is necessary it must be fought.

[Deep13]

8. War can only be considered with the greatest sobriety...

...and with apprehension of its terrible consequences. It must only be used as a last resort in the most dire necessity and never out of mere convenience.

[ohio_liberal]

10. To quote Wesley Clark

War is diplomatic failure. Use force only as a last resort-and then multilaterally if possible.

edit: typo

[AX10]

12. War must be the absolute option in all cases, HOWEVER...

IT MUST BE AN OPTION. Also, I am in favor of peacekeeping forces being organized and sent through the UN to such places as Dafur, etc.
I oppose the Iraqi War. It has nothing to do with terrorism. The Iraqi debacle is a dangerous distraction from dealing with the REAL TERRORISTS. They exist and Bush has done nothing but appease them. He still is friends with the Saudi Mob and gives weapons to Pakistan.

The Iraq War was started for mere political purposes.

[Texasgal]

16. I'm a little shocked as to

how many people have voted for being against ALL war.

[AX10]

25. Correction: "War must be the absolute LAST option"

negotiate first whenever possible and wars must be fought for the purpose of defense only.

[The2ndWheel]

13. It's part of civilization

When centers of power collide, war happens. They always have, they always will. Humans even made rules for war, whatever the hell that means. There are too many variables involved in war, so it will happen again. It may be in a different way than the last war, but it will happen again. How could America still go to war, or fight one through a third or fourth party, after Vietnam? Sure enough, how many times have we done that since? Our center of power has interests to protect. That's all war is.

[xchrom]

15. there was no center of power in iraq -- except that we gave it one.

because humans go to war isn't an excuse for anything.

most people stop at red lights and go at green.

so i have no idea what you're talking about.

[Qibing Zero]

31. With that attitude, we will keep having wars.

Honestly, it's really sad that so many people think this way.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. I'm with Gandhi. See quote in text.

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.” - Gandhi

[Swamp Rat]

27. Excellent quote!

[davekriss]

32. I too am with Gandhi, see additional quote...

Hatred ever kills, love never dies such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred.
-- Gandi

Let me add...

People rarely win wars, governments rarely lose them. People get killed. Governments molt and regroup, hydra-headed. They first use flags to shrink-wrap peoples' minds and suffocate real thought, and then as ceremonial shrouds to cloak the mangled corpses of the willing dead.
-- Arundhati Roy

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

If you assume that there's no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there's a chance you may contribute to making a better world. That's your choice.
-- Noam Chomsky

You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.
-- Malcolm X

You must be the change you want to see in the world.
-- Mohandas K Gandhi

Now. Or never.
-- Henry David Thoreau

[FrenchieCat]

19. I judge on the merits of each case.....

Revolution - doh...yeah!

Civil War - Unfortunately, yes!

Spanish American War - No

WWI - You know....I don't even know! (shame on me)

WWII - We took too long to get there. Had to be attacked by the Japanese. Europe was invaded and millions killed before we took any actions.

Korean War - Unrequired

Vietnam War - Unrequired

Gulf War - ? (I think we had something to do with the reason it started)

Kosovo - Uh...yeah! Genocide was the plan. 200,000 Bosnians had already died, and 10,000 Albanians by the time we did something. WWII was supposed to teach us never again!

Rwanda - A place we should have gone and didn't. WWII lesson was not learned according to the 800,000 who died.

Iraq War - Hell No! Reasons given then and now don't make any f*cking sense.

In fact....Sign the petition to hold the GOP controlling Congress accountable for oversight over our President. Sign the petition to say we support an investigation into HOW WE GOT INTO IRAQ!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[LiberalPersona]

20. There's

only two causes I accept for war. That of self defense, and that of helping protect allies from agressors.

[baldguy]

22. Sometimes even a peaceful nation must go to war.

There are belligerent people in the world; it's human nature. If you accept the benefits of war - freedom for a people, the defeat of a tyrant, the retaliation of an attack - then you must support the war itself.

But THIS war - George Bush's war - is unjust, immoral and illegal. Not because of Bush's stated objectives weren't on their face just & honorable, they were. The thing that damns George Bush and his advisers is stated objectives were lies.

The unstated objectives were unobtainable. The outcome has been a disaster.

[killbotfactory]

23. All wars are immoral unless they are waged in defense against an aggressor

And the only reason people promote and wage war is because they think they can profit from it.

[Ron Green]

24. I don't believe the strongest nation ever has to go to war,

any more than an adult in a house full of children must beat them up. It's up to the most powerful member to negotiate, instruct, exemplify, cajole, and otherwise persuade the "children," no matter how belligerent, to behave themselves and grow into responsibility. To use force against a weaker nation is truly a failure of our "adult" power of diplomacy, substituting the tantrum of a child.

[SPKrazy]

26. War sucks!

but if we are really attacked, we should fight back.

I do think that originally the Afghan war seemed right.

As I've learned more (Karzai and Unocal, opium money, goose chases for bin Laden, and more about the bin Laden's and the *'s, war profiteering, etc.) I'm thinking it was a ruse too, to set up a northern front for the imperialistic designs of the neocon cabal.

Thanks

[AntiCoup2K4]

28. War. HUH good God y'all. What is it good for? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

That's my general belief on the subject.

In a case like World War II, I would make an exception though. We didn't have much of a choice in that one. Everything since then, however, has been complete bullshit as far as any "threat" to the United States goes.

[mmonk]

29. In war, you're either the one who forces it, or

you are forced into it. If it is deemed a war of choice, then those that choose it are those that force it which is the immoral position.

[leftofthedial]

30. I am PRO War of the Worlds

[InkAddict]

33. Is it seditious to imagine that the

Powers That Be and the BFEE's (nice little rhyme) "corruptorations, cronies, and Christian soldiers" have their sticky little fingers in the honeypots of most every war since WWII????