No just wars?
Michael Eisenstadt
michaele@ando.pair.com
Sun, 28 Oct 2001 13:08:25 -0600
Roger Baker wrote:
> No wars are "just" wars -- unless they maybe have the rulers who make
> the policies that lead to war fight it out out in person, or something
> like that. Otherwise wars tend to affect innocents and children
> disproportionately, as all modern wars do.
Your "maybe..." remark is facetious and not serious, as modern
military action is incompatible with one on one jousting
like in the Middle Ages. I think your self-proclaimed
humanitarianism is totally bogus and in bad faith.
We will just have to agree to disagree. My starting point is
that there are just wars -- 2 examples (for the non-Rogers)
would be WW II and the recent Kosovo intervention. There are
many others.
Your view that we should NOT have reacted to 9-11 is thankfully
confined to the ranks of those like yourself whose main focus of
life it is to protest, being otherwise disassociated and
alienated from normal pursuits.
This is NOT to say that the operation in Afghanistan will ever
succeed. It could perhaps have been conduced in a more cunning
way rather than immediately into action. Your observation that
this is an unwinnable war may well be correct. (If it were winnable
it wouldnt make any difference to you anyway). On the other hand
we are merely 3 weeks into it and lots of unanticipated events
will doubtless be reported on the nightly news. I still hope for
the best: lots of Al Quaida dead or captured.
It seems best to let our discussion cease.
Mike