SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : FREE AMERICA
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (9366)7/24/2006 2:11:09 PM
From: Brumar89  Read Replies (2) of 14758
 
Amen to your post.

---------------------------

And I'll add a few words about the futility of "wasted lives" in "unnecessary wars" arguments. People who opposed a particular war are quick to make a judgment which supports their opinion. It's the "see, I told you so" or "I knew it all along" idea. But in the light of history it is harder to make such judgments.

The US war with Mexico was unpopular with many Americans at the time. It may have been unnecessary. Were the lives lost "wasted"? The war made what is now NM, AZ, CA, CO, UT, and NV US territory. Would we be better off without those territories? Can we really even imagine a US without those territories?

The Civil War was certainly unnecessary - we could have let the South secede and that war cost more lives than all the other wars in American history combined. Would the nation be better off? I don't think so and the generation which fought the war didn't either.

Moving forward in time - was Korea a necessary war? Maybe not. Though South Korea is a prosperous ally now instead a country in which millions starve. The unnecessary war certainly made a difference to tens of millions of people there. Furthermore, Korea and Vietnam were small wars in a larger "cold" war with Communism. I certainly believe we are better off for being the side that won that larger war even though not every battle in that longer war was successful or necessary in retrospect.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, we've overthrown brutal dictatorships and made possible the introduction or real democracy into the heart of the Moslem world. That is certainly a noble and moral cause. But there is no guarantee that democracy will "take" and will lead to the long-term transformation of a backward and unstable part of the world although a similar policy worked in Europe and eastern Asia over a period of half a century.

It's way too soon to make historical judgments about conflicts now still ongoing.
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2025 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News