"No nation has ever benefited from prolonged war."

[Brigid]

So says Sun Tzu. Sounds so simple -- and obvious, right? So why is it this country (and others) just don't get it? :banghead:

[villager]

1. Because there is no one wise in any position of actual power...

n/t

[villager]

2. DU software dupes for emphasis (?)

n/t

[Jeffersons Ghost]

3. here's your 4th rec... maybe the trolls will leave it alone

[CJvR]

4. Because...

...a nation can profit, immensely, from a short victorious war.

As pointed out in the "Yes Minister" comedy series. If you want something approved the suggestion should contain the words "Quick, simple, cheap & popular". If you want something rejected you use "Lengthy, complicated, expensive & controversial"

[ThomWV]

5. It might be argued that Viet Nam benefitted from a prolonged war

Let us say that instead they might have returned to being a French colony after the second world war. Taking the beginning of the war against Viet Nam to have begun with the French, followed by us, it gives that war a span of about 30 years and it might be argued that the Viet Nam that exists today, one that seems to be prospering, could not have come into existence any way other than how it did, or at least it could not have happened peacefully. I dunno, just sayin' ....

[Brigid]

6. Perhaps SunTzu might have been more precise if he'd said . . .

"No nation ever benefited from a prolonged war if they were playing chess whole the enemy was playing 'go.'" History Channel actually showed some history today with another airing of its fascinating special about Sun Tzu. They compared the vastly different strategies of the Americans vs the NVA and the Viet Cong. e latter's methods. Sun Tzu would have applauded thOr maybe the Viet Nam war, at least for the Vietnamese, was an exception the proves the rule.

[sad sally]

9. Oh my, the horror Vietnam endured was a good thing?

The Vietnam war itself was fought because at the end of World War II, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence from the colonizing French, reading from the U.S. Declaration of Independence to emphasize his people’s reasonable claim to self-determination. Instead of supporting this universal urge that humanity has for freedom, the U.S. supported the French effort to regain their colony for 10 long years (1945-1954). After the French were defeated, the U.S. fought the Vietnamese for another 22 years (1955-1975). Thus, 32 years of brutal mayhem took place, when all the Vietnamese people were asking for was their independence. The American lives that were ruined – the 58,000 combat deaths, 100,000+ suicides, 300,000 homeless men – were all expended for nothing, as were the 3.4 million Vietnamese who died in that war.

[Melissa G]

7. Because the countries themselves are not benefitting from the prolonged wars,

The corporations who call the shots for the countries are benefiting. Those corporations don't care about the countries or the people that inhabit them. They don't care about the Earth they ravage.

These corporations care about profit and power. They believe war brings them both.

[Brigid]

8. Oh, yes, absolutely.

The good old military-industrial complex. Even Ike warned us about that.