I don’t know whether this is worthy of this posting board but I shall categorise it as philosphy none the less.
I have mixed feelings about War and I wanted to know what everybody else thought. In some cases I really do hate war in others I do not.
When I weigh the pro’s against the con’s they seem even. It is so difficult because there are so many ways of looking at it; from the point of a civilian, military, goverment, and the list goes on.
war is both a good and bad thing. i am anti-war but pro-military, in that i believe war should be avoided (not at all cost) but if the situation requires it you shouldn’t pussy foot about but take the best moves to resolve the action quickly, effectively and with the least loss of life. but i also believe no country should sacrifice it’s armed forces, e.g. the RAF flying planes which can only be described as more of hazard to their crews than their targets. i also believe alot of the criticism against the military is either unfounded, unnecessary or not the fault of the military but politicians. whenever something goes wrong politicians blame the military, a prime example of this would be the current Afghan war. whenever a mistake is made the politicians blame the forces out there but fail to recognise it is their own stupidity with funding that means their troops are under equipped and risking their lives for the politicians carreer.
the solution to war, put the politicians in a field with a baseball bat each and let them sort it out, because if you goto war they would rather stab you in the back than lose face.
yeah i agree wif macca. was sometimes is nessicary. if we were to just sit back and let some country invade us. pacifism is never gonna be the right answer. somone brought up a good analogy. If somone starts punching you in the face, and wont stop. Just politely asking him to isnt going to help you out any. You gota stand up for yourself and what ya believe, otherwise somone will just go and take it away.
War is about power, you either want something another country has (ie. land, money, people, etc.), or you are taking revenge for something some reason, or you are defending against an attack. Any of these reasons for war are not good ones to me.
I can’t just simply say it’s a bad thing because although war has many negative effects, it also has many good ones. Ie. Technological advancements that help us in the future. Population decreases and the land, food, and water is spared a little bit. War may bring new realizations that may bring the world’s people closer together in the end.
I can’t say it is both, because I understand what it must be like for those who have family in the war, only to never see them again. These people have a hard time seeing anything good out of war if it bring death in any way or form. I understand where they are coming from.
I can’t say neither, since war in itself if either one side or the other wins most likely ends in oppression of the defeated, or a embellished victory in the history books accompanied by a pathetic portrayal of the defeated. (Since history is written by the victors.)
saying history is written by the victors isn’t always true. now with the availiability of media even the losers can write history, e.g. EVERY vietnam film is a victory for the americans but the reality was they lost, even with their $20million planes and ‘advanced’ tactics. or look at the irsh civil war, the british lost but still believe utter tosh about it.
“History is written by the victors” is a saying. It holds merit as a general rule and something to always watch out for when reading history. I think it is also worth mentioning. I agree that it can’t always be true. But what can? Your example of vietnam is a true one, but you must remember that it was a stalemate. No one got what they were after. I know a little bit about the Irish war, but not enough to comment.
For you to respond that it’s not only true, is convenient and true, but it should also be noted that there is merit to the phrase, and it is important to keep the phrase in mind so that maybe the person who keeps it in mind will one day do something great in the world and prevent some kind of victors from embellishing the historical happenings of the war and instead write the truth of the matter.
a discussion I began