The Case for War

I received an email today from a friend who is going through a phase where she believes in 'causes'. i respect her in a lot of ways, but....

she sent an email with the question:

"are wars ever justified?"

The sheer stupidity of this question would have made me mad years ago, but now i just let this kind of stuff slide off the back. can this ignorance be countered?-should be the real question. so let's go back over some pre-iraq wars, shall we? let's see how dubious they all are:

1998-9 Kosovo: although exagerrated were the reports (in hindsight), milosovic was slaughtering by the thousands. the air war took him out of power and ended the ethnic cleansing of millions of people.

1991: Gulf: saddam invades a peaceful neighbour and begins a reign of terror in kuwait. kuwait, incidently, is one of the US' best friends in the region. (let me know when they have 'kuwaiti terrorists'.

1980 (?): falklands. argentina invades the falklands and loses badly to the brits. the brits were protecting a colony that was loyal only to england, and had no desire to be ruled by a tyrant (who does?)

1960-1975: vietnam. yes, now it is looked at as a failure, and yes there were horrid problems. the US went in with idealism and a plan to stop communism. for all the good and bad, communism didn't spread to indonesia, malaysia, the phillipines or ...ah india (only kind of). imagine the entire area of southeast asia...under the khmer rouge. at what cost would you attempt to stop that?

1950-3: Korean: the assinine communists try to pull a fast one on the south. they push halfway, the allies push back and a stalemate results. the end product: the north is hellhole on earth, led by a maniac. the south is a modern, rich, and democratic country.

1939-1945: WW2: anyone who disputes that destroying the axis was a bad thing can rot in hell. anyone who forgets this is a tool without a brain.

all war has ever solved was slavery, oppression, nazism and prevented the onslaught of tyranny.

(yeah...but is it moral?hahahhaha)