The Human Toll Of The War 'To End All Wars'

turbo

For the countries in power, war is a matter of choice. For the countries who will be preyed upon or "punished" for some perceived infraction, war may well be a matter of fact, however undesired.

mheslep

Well I'm in agreement with most of that except what creates "a state of war", or perhaps what brings it into being. I don't mean to address here simply a legalism that may never followed up by any action, and which I'm not qualified to address.

Before 9/11 most might have commonly said a state of war results via military attack from another nation state that significantly threatens the safety of the US or one of its allies. Surely, we don't say massive acts of violence alone are sufficient, or the Oklahoma City bombing would have thrown the US into a state of war. Surely we don't say lawlessness abroad against US interests, alone, is sufficient or the US would be thrown into a state of war with Somalia the first time two guys in a motor boat fired on a US manned container ship. I'm suggesting, then, that after 9/11 the state of war came about not after the attack, but after the US assessed a future threat from AQ in Afghanistan and brought itself into a state of war, justifiably so, and acted accordingly. The US assessed a future threat, that could not be addressed adequately by sending in the FBI or reinforcing cockpits.

Astronuc

http://costsofwar.org/

http://costsofwar.org/article/us-and...ed-and-wounded

http://costsofwar.org/article/us-vet...itary-families

http://costsofwar.org/article/civili...ed-and-wounded

turbo

I don't mean to pull a hijack, but there are other "great wars" and our WWII vets are currently being shortchanged. My father and his compatriots are almost all in their mid-80's or older (much older in some cases) and the VA is planning on pulling the portable trailer that acts as the VA office in northern Maine. If the VA is successful at nickel-and-diming our vets, most of them would have to drive over 100-300 miles round-trip to get to the old Togus VA hospital to get basic medical care, like blood pressure checks and medication, screenings, etc. That is just wrong. My father and his fellow old vets don't like to ask for help, and they are liable to forego medical services when it is made inconvenient or personally difficult to access them. Can we afford to give Pakistan $12B to build a dam, and not afford to provide our vets (WWII and more recent) the VA health care that they were promised?