No it was not a poorly worded sentence, in that I meant if the USA stopped doing wars, wars will continue around to world. The bad guys will win them and will continue to do more and more wars because they can and because it works for them. And in that case, eventually we will have to fight a war anyway - probably a big one, e.g., as happened in WWII.
The USA doesn’t control all of the wars in the world. And the USA does not do all of the bad gruesome things that are happening and have happened in the world.
Yes, it was poorly worded. If you meant just the U.S. then you should have said, if the U.S. stopped fighting wars… Then it would have been better worded.
I never said the U.S. controlled all the wars. However, humans do and if humans stopped fighting wars, then wars can’t get worse.
MrianaKeymaster
Actually, Vietnam was really about oil (every Vietnam Vet I’ve talked to has confirmed this too) and Afghanistan wasn’t JUST about 9/11. It was far more than that.
You should start a thread about this. I’m an Afghanistan vet and always interested in what civilians think about it.
As far as being drafted, it’s less likely the older one gets. So you are a long ways from being drafted. They take and kill off or maim the young ones first before they go for the older guys and if they aren’t maimed enough, they throw them back into the war to be killed. That’s all war is about really. War really is good for nothing except keeping the undertaker employed. And yes, I despise war and I object strongly to it and my anthem is “War” by Edwin Starr. I also like the song “The Dirty F***in’ Hippies Were Right” too.
Well, it’s also unlikely as the draft ended in the early 70’s.
The fall of Saigon wasn’t, I want to say, until 75. I remember seeing it on TV because Walter Cronkite interrupted my show to start the report on it. Sadly, I was old enough for it to catch my eye and I haven’t forgotten the scenes on the TV. Everyone running and screaming, helicopters everywhere… basically a mad scene. As a nine year old, the scenes horrified me. So no, I doubt the draft ended until that day.
Ok, I should have specified in the 1st disputed post that “If the USAstopped engaging in all wars, then wars will continue, anyway, and the outcomes may well be worse all around the world than they have been.” Is that worded properly for you, now?
If you hadn’t noticed, there are other entities in the world who use violence to attain power and control. And the more that works for them, the more they will do it. If you want us to let that happen, then, by all means, we should disband our military and never engage in any military activities ever again.
That seems rather crazy to me. Perhaps there is a middle ground between that, and the preponderance of the stupid wasteful wars and military actions that we have been involved in.
Oh and, believe it or not, I know that the draft is no longer in effect. Apparently I was trying to be more clever than I should have, for my audience.
If 'if’s and buts" were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.
So, you are right, Mriana, if humans stopped engaging in wars and violent control over other humans, we would all be much better off. But that is not going to happen.
You should start a thread about this. I’m an Afghanistan vet and always interested in what civilians think about it.
I just heard yesterday or the day before just how bad the Afghan war really was. Through 3 administrations we never did have a clear plan of what we intended to accomplish. It was essentially just, "Go in and shoot some shit to cover up for all the money that's being funneled to corporations under the guise of war."
I never said it was going to happen. Humans are not evolved enough not to kill. We are parasites on the planet and killing anything that gets in our way of sucking the earth dry.
The fall of Saigon wasn’t, I want to say, until 75. I remember seeing it on TV because Walter Cronkite interrupted my show to start the report on it. Sadly, I was old enough for it to catch my eye and I haven’t forgotten the scenes on the TV. Everyone running and screaming, helicopters everywhere… basically a mad scene. As a nine year old, the scenes horrified me. So no, I doubt the draft ended until that day.
Ended in 1973. Same year US military operations in Vietnam ended.
Saigon did fall in '75 but there hadn’t been any American military presence in Vietnam for two years. US Marines were deployed to evacuate the US embassy, and they ended up evacuating a lot of western journalists and Vietnamese civilians too.
I just heard yesterday or the day before just how bad the Afghan war really was. Through 3 administrations we never did have a clear plan of what we intended to accomplish. It was essentially just, “Go in and shoot some shit to cover up for all the money that’s being funneled to corporations under the guise of war.”
We had a clear plan at the beginning simply to capture Bin Laden and kill Al Qaida and Taliban leadership, and we nearly accomplished that in 2002. Shifting focus to Iraq in early '03 permanently wrecked our chances in Afghanistan.
The lack of strategy in Iraq was a million times worse.
@thatoneguy No, Vietnam ended in '75 with the Fall of Saigon and some of our men were still there at the time, but ended up being emergency evacuated. Some of these were the stubborn ones who didn’t want to leave their new families behind due to it being illegal for them to bring their wives and children with them. Now the draft itself, that’s a different story and you maybe right that it ended in '73. Whatever the case, when the city fell, all hell broke out and it was on the TV with Walter Cronkite interrupting for a special reporting showing all the insanity of people running, screaming, and helicopters.
Oneguy said, “We had a clear plan at the beginning simply to capture Bin Laden and kill Al Qaida and Taliban leadership, and we nearly accomplished that in 2002. Shifting focus to Iraq in early ’03 permanently wrecked our chances in Afghanistan.”
TimB replies: That is how I see it, too. As I recall, there was a point at which our forces had him cornered (although in a rather unpropitious locale for kill & confirm or extraction). I think going in was considered to have too many likely casualties? Or maybe the military command was not allowed to go in, due to some weird (and possibly even corrupt) political consideration.