Now that Georgie has lost the Election...

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Unfortunately, pulling out will result in Iraq being a massive terrorist state. If that is inevitable, then pulling out ASAP is best. If there's a hope of some sort of functioning government, it may be worthwhile holding out for it. I'm not sure whether there's hope at this point.

I feel that we have completely destabilized the area. The choices are a US propped government in Iraq with continued guerilla unrest or pulling out and leaving things to the various warring factions who will ultimately sort things out amongst themselves. Neither option is pretty.

[flippant]

The war on terrorism. Terrorism won. Drugs the won war on drugs....guess who won the war on poverty? Maybe we need to dismantle these half-baked problem solving ideas and come up with a solution to help our homeland instead of propagandizing the situation, and ultimately proving terrorism works.

[Happy Monkey]

Almost everybody supports the theory of a draft in times of dire national emergency, assuming a dramatic enough definition of dire. Almost nobody actually wants to initiate it. Any dickering about who did what in creating the infrastructure for it is irrelevant. The issue is who you think would be more likely to cause the escalation of a national emergency to the scale where a draft is necessary.

[Undertoad]

In case of actual national emergency, they will have to turn people away from the recruiting offices. In case of manufactured emergency, it depends how the action is interpreted.

[Happy Monkey]

They'll turn some away, and have to draft others. That's always been true.

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

They'll turn some away, and have to draft others. That's always been true.

Yeah, it was certainly true in the only real "just" war we ever involved in: WWII. Young men certainly rushed to join the military after Pearl Harbour, but we still had to have a draft for all that.

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Yeah, it was certainly true in the only real "just" war we ever involved in: WWII.

Huh???

Originally Posted by sycamore

Huh???

Huh, what? Are you saying WWII couldn't really be labeled a just war or are you saying other wars we were involved in were just? I was speaking of the modern era, btw. One could also say that the Civil War was a just war, and the war of the American Revolution was, as well. One might also argue that all wars are evil. Or were you disputing my comment on the draft?

[elSicomoro]

Why do you argue only WWII?

Originally Posted by sycamore

Why do you argue only WWII?

Gotcha, well I hope I clarified with that amendment about the modern era. Should have put that in my original reply.

[elSicomoro]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Gotcha, well I hope I clarified with that amendment about the modern era.

Nope...you didn't answer my question.

Originally Posted by sycamore

Nope...you didn't answer my question.

After 1900, the only "good" war (if you ever can call a war good) that the US has been engaged in was WWII, IMO. I'm pretty much a pacifist, so it takes something like being attacked by another NATION, plus the holocaust for me to feel a country is doing the right thing by going to war. I'm sure some, if not many, might disagree with me on this. I think having a parent be in the military and growing up with the constant fear that my Dad might not ever come home is probably responsible for at least some of my outlook in that regard.

[jaguar]

Good thing they never forgot vietnam or or you could end up unilaterally invading some other country on ideological grounds only to have it all end in tears.

Originally Posted by jaguar

Good thing they never forgot vietnam or or you could end up unilaterally invading some other country on ideological grounds only to have it all end in tears.

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm here?

[jaguar]

I'm a plain old straight talkin' type mari, no idea what you're talking about.
Reminds me of one of my favorite new words - sarchasm - the yawning divide between you and the person that didn't get it.