Posted: Tuesday, January 2, 2007 12:00 am
What makes a war just
As Stalin once said, "A single death is a tragedy; a half-million deaths is a statistic." Did you know that there are seven criteria for a "just war"?
They are: a just cause for the war; a legitimate authority declaring war; a formal declaration of war; the goal being a return to peace; recourse to war only as a last resort; a reasonable hope of success, and means proportional to the ends.
In addition to the seven criteria, there are three procedural requirements in the prosecution of war: noncombatants are not to be targeted, prisoners must not be treated cruelly, and all treaties and conventions of war must be respected.
As judged by the above requirements, I would say that Afghanistan probably qualifies on the seven criteria but may - in light of the revelations about Guantanamo and 'Black Site Prisons'- be in trouble on the three requirements for prosecution.
Iraq, I'm afraid, only gets passing grades if one resorts to song and dance routines and lawyerly language (the, "what the definition of 'is' is") that conservatives abhor so vehemently. As for myself, when one is talking about war - the taking of human life is a serious subject - I want the reason my country goes to war to be very clear. The case of Iraq is clear as mud.
Bruce Crossan, Lebanon
The problem: Bush's ego
Bush doesn't want to pull out of Iraq because of his ego. He never admits he is wrong. N.Y. Times op-ed, 12/4/06: "How do you ask a man to die for a bully's ego?"
The civil war in Iraq is so bad that "flunky" press secretary Tony Snow can't even come up with one of his stupid sentences to smooth it over. Sen. Gordon Smith (Oregon Republican, mind you!) says a policy "where our soldiers patrol the same streets every day and get blown up by the same bombs over and over is so awful that it may be criminal!" I-m-p-e-a-c-h-m-e-n-t! is what I say!
On a panel discussion on OPB TV, heard (and agree with) that Bush Sr. breaking down in heavy tears giving a speech honoring his son, Jeb, was way out of proportion. It was because he is completely crushed by the mess his oldest son, George W., has made of the presidency. Jeb was meant to carry the family name to the White House a second time, but he lost an election in Florida in '94 and George W. won one in Texas that year, so the family idiot, George W., became president, and you know the rest.
Democrats.com has a movement afoot to impeach Bush and Cheney by the spring of 2007. Check it out on www.Democrats.com.
Good news: Sen. Barbara Boxer, Democrat, California (new chair of Senate Environmental Committee) says, "environmental rollbacks from the Bush administration 'in the dead of the night' are history." (D-H, Dec. 5, '06) Yea! Let's hear it for the trees, animals, birds, reptiles and fish of this old Earth!
Speaking of helping this Earth and its creatures, including people: Laura Bush and three other women wore the same Oscar de la Renta red dress to a big do at the Kennedy Center in D.C. Forget the fashion boo-boo, the price tag, $8,500 per dress, would have come to $34,000. That, plus the cost of dresses of other lady attendees, would help a few victims of Katrina and the soldiers fighting Bush's war, wouldn't it?
Mary Brock, Albany
Listening to wrong crowd
I don't understand people who think history started during the Vietnam war. After reading "The way toward peace" by Larry Eby, (Mailbag, Dec. 23, 2006), I'm afraid he is one of them. Mr. Eby stated that war is not the way to settle international problems. I'm sorry, but terrorists killing innocent Americans is not an "international problem."
The "Vietnam mistake" as he put it was a mistake because the politicians listened to the protest crowd and, in order to appease them, placed restrictions on our military that made it impossible for them to attain victory or, even worse, to save their own lives. Unfortunately we didn't learn and the politicians are still listening to the wrong crowd and American military lives are still being lost because of the restrictions.
Mr. Eby said that compromise and resolution and the need to accept the other's viewpoint and the willingness to go the extra distance to achieve what is best for both sides are needed. Sorry, we already understand the "other side's viewpoint." They want to kill us. Now how many American lives shall we offer to them to get them to stop hating us? Three thousand? Nope, that didn't work. Do you think 10,000, a million maybe? Should we all become Muslims? I'm sorry, but one American life is too many, and freedom of religion is too important.
He states that wars are bad whether you are winning or losing. Of course they are, but losing is not an option, not when your country is at stake, and believe it or not, because of the attitude of many like him, this country is on a slippery slope.
War is inevitable, has been since time memorial, will be through eternity, and the only way to exist is to be strong.
Read history Mr. Eby, real history, before Korea, the other war the politicians botched, and you will learn that this is and always has been a great country. To stay great we must stay strong.
Rodney King's "Can't we all just get along" rings hollow. Did then, really does now. God bless our military and America.
Larry Crompton, Scio