Are we really at war?

[Stinky The Clown]

"War" is a convenient shorthand for a complex conflict.

What is going on in Iraq looks like a war. It bleeds and dies like a war. The best definition I can come up with for what's going on in Iraq is a monumentally fucked up mess.

But for the sake of this post, let's put Iraq aside.

People who share a common view see us 'at war' with jihadists and see that war as being global in scale.

People who share an opposite view see us facing an amorphous group of people hell bent on attacking anything American.

People of one common view see all solutions as military or related somehow to the military.

People of the opposite view see it more akin to a police matter that demands intelligence (as in spy) not bombs.

I'm of a mind that we're not 'at war'. I'm also unwilling to give up one whit of my freedom to 'feel safer'. Life is full of risks. Terrorists win when they hit us or when they simply cause us to give up more freedoms. I would much rather sneer in their faces than cower in some airport line waiting for someone with rubber gloves to pat me down and sniff my shit stained underwear.

When I was young and stupid, I joined the Navy. I felt I had a duty to serve my country while it was fighting the falling dominoes of Communism in a place called Viet Nam. While I never got there and actually fought, I don't regret my service. I was a young kid who didn't think he had the right or the power to do anything but what was considered 'right'.

I am now old and cranky and largely don't give a shit anymore about what's 'considered' right. I just worry about what I **think** is right. I trust my internal compass.

I reject this notion that we're 'at war'. I see it as political bullshit and fear tactics being used to keep us in line and stupid.

Am I alone in my cynicism?







And today, Memorial Day, I did, indeed, reflect on those who were killed in service to their country. I truly believe that most of them gave their lives thinking they were doing the right thing. I thought the very same when I was young and stupid. I will never argue with the idea of their patriotism and sense of having done right. I salute them. I honor them.

[PDJane]

1. You're not wrong.

Congress has not declared war.
Iraq did not declare war.

You invaded and continue to occupy a country that is now a failed state, killing more than a million of its citizens, displacing another 4.5 million citizens and making 5,000 orphans.

Just wrong all the way around.

[stevedeshazer]

2. Yes, we're at war

With ourselves.

Iraq and Afghanistan are military occupations.

The real war is from within the US, and the world is at stake.

[Wapsie B]

3. You are correct sir.

Keeping us "at war" is a way to instill fear, quash dissent, and keep the little people in line. Blind obedience is required by these leaders. Anything less than that is painted as un-American.

[Glorfindel]

4. If young men weren't "stupid," there'd be no war

- or football, either, for that matter. Testosterone-fueled risk-taking is the very definition of youthful stupidity, and I was as guilty as anyone else, long ago when I was young. I did get to Vietnam, but (thank God!) I never had to fight. The evil sets in when older men (and women) who should know better, exploit this stupidity for their own twisted ends. And to answer your question, of course we're not at war. To be nitpicky about it, only Congress can declare war, and no such declaration has taken place. I'm old and cranky, too, and agree with you 100% percent. The "perpetual war" we're engaged in now is brought to us by the same people who created the "communist menace" and then brought it down; the same people who created Standard Oil, broke it into pieces, and are now re-creating it; and last, but not least, the people who took apart AT&T and are now putting it back together. There are great fortunes to be made in the rise and fall of empires. Our corporatist masters only need to keep us angry and entertained. The increasing disparity between the incredibly rich and the rest of us is blatant evidence of what's going on, but nobody ever wants to think about that.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. Wow, you need to make that a thread so I can rec it.....

great stuff!!!!!

[Art_from_Ark]

6. It used to be that "war" had such negative connotations

that the media would refer to an unpopular one (like Vietnam) as a "conflict".

But as Will Rogers said, "We say it's not a war, and they say it's not a war, so, there, it's not a war. Of course, the folks getting shot at say it's the closest thing to a war."

[Disturbed]

7. The Busholini Regime is engaging in territorial conquests.

The purpose is to control the natural resources of those territories. The Multi-Corps are backing this. It is being waged by a volunteer Military & Mercs.