Why are Repukes so obsessed with war???

[LSK]

How come they perform the mental gymnastics needed to still justify this war? How come instead of questioning Petraeus about how we can get out of this mess, they ask questions with the only intent to justify the war and now justify the surge. They never talk about what the end goal would be. They keep on making silly statements that Al Queda would take over Iraq if we leave. Their arguments still consist of terrorists vs us. Are they really that stupid? Are they in bed with the defense contractors and oil companies so badly that they must look like damn fools whenever they try to justify the war?

I just read about how a new member of Congress gave an anti-war speech and most of the Republicans left in the middle of it. Why are they so bent on continuing this war?

I am about to start reading John Dean's Conservatives without Conscience. Perhaps some answers lie in that book.

What are your ideas on why they are so Pro-War?

[Ezlivin]

1. Who profits the most?

And who controls those industries?

If they could make more money off of peace they'd do it in a heartbeat. But war is very profitable for business.

[lonestarnot]

2. Absolutely! Follow the money.

[Squatch]

3. War = $$$

[annabanana]

4. no dicks?. . . .. .n/t

[MindPilot]

12. Close...but remember there are female war-mongers too

I think it has to do with small self-worth rather than small genitalia; the money is just a happy side-effect. The real reason has to do more with an innate tribalism coupled with a need to define one's self by one's enemy, real or imagined.

If you scratch the surface of any war supporter, you'll find a borderline sociopath with very low self-esteem. Ending the current war(s) would mean they were wrong and their fragile egos--huge though they may be--couldn't withstand that.

Just my two cents...

[bdamomma]

5. there is alot of money being made when you kill people.

[dysfunctional press]

6. i honestly believe that a lot of them are sentimentally retarded for the bygone days of world war 2

the good ol' days. the black-and-white white-and-black days.

[MindPilot]

15. Agreed. Again I don't think is about the money.

There are many ways to make boatloads of cash without destroying entire countries.

I believe these are people who absolutely have to have an enemy to have any sense of self-worth. In WW2 there were the Nazis--a bona fide and very real enemy. Throughout the next four decades there were the Communists; maybe not quite so much a threat as the Nazis but still very real.

They are trying so hard now to create a new enemy and failing miserably at it. They are not creating enemies; they are merely making people not like us much. It's got to be so terribly disappointing; I almost feel sorry for them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Of note the Republicans were AGAINST the country going into WW II

they supported it, half heartedly, after Pearl Harbor.

Now the commies, they have seen them as a threat even BEFORE WW II... people forget the 1920s Red Scare and the fact that we did invade Russia in 1917

[MindPilot]

19. good point...then just like now they focused on the imagined threat

instead of the real ones. "Let's dismiss global warming as a myth while we wage a war on "terrorism." "People may die from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's but we're saving zygotes."

[Ikonoklast]

7. Disaster Economics

Keep markets volatile, create chaos and uncertainty.

Fear. Death. Shortages.

MAKE MONEY.

[Subdivisions]

8. Money, money, money, mon-ney...MON-NEY! n/t

[lonestarnot]

9. Mo mo mo money.

[orleans]

10. i believe it's called the "little dick syndrome" n/t

[Mountainman]

11. The war makes their wealth grow. Why do repukes do anything?

Self interest and that interest is money. "Less taxes, less government more military spending, more money for me."

[Alcibiades]

13. They have nothing else to offer

Without an enemy to fight, modern conservatism in the US has nothing left to offer anyone except freaky evangelicals. They are bad for the environment, jobs, labor, wages, and have shown that their vaunted "expertise" in foreign policy is a joke, and that they cannot be trusted to administer the public fisc. All they have left are endless tax cuts for the rich, and that only gets you so far, and doesn't even work on the civicly minded, patriotic or or liberal rich who realize that they actually have the most to gain from paying their taxes.

The problem is that wars end. The Second Iraq War ended when Bush stepped aboard the USS "Mission Accomplished." In order to continue to reap the political benefits of war, however, they have to keep it going, so they rebranded the occupation as a war. Next, when the civil war in Iraq starts in earnest, expect them to intervene against all comers.

Note that this will be done not to achieve victory, but to forestall any possibility of victory. Herein lies the rub. Glory belongs only to the victor of war, yet they must keep the war and the fear going in order to remain in office, so they keep screwing up on purpose. People will eventually realize that the light of the end of the tunnel that is always six months away will be forever six months away.

[entanglement]

14. Both parties are pro-war, IMHO. Their differences are purely tactical.

[noel711]

16. John Dean's book is brilliant...

Somehow I think he's Pro-Obama, but I may be wrong.

Why 'pro-war'? They are bullies,
obsessed with being 'in charge.'

Read the book.. it's about the 'authoritarian culture'
of the repubican party... very good stuff.

[Kaleko]

17. The idea of war stimulates the reptilian brain stem.

Couple that with a short-sighted need to release repressed rage and desire for self-aggrandizement - and voilà, you've got an instant "patriot". Hurrah!