Who exactly are we at war with ?

[jaysunb]

Everyday I hear references to " the war " in Iraq and Afghanistan. I hear that GWB is a " war time " president. For the first time in my life I've heard the POUSA repeatedly referred to as, " the commander in chief . " ( when I was in Nam we called LBJ, " President Johnson " and I've lived through the administration of 12 Presidents.)

I wonder why we permit this illegal invasion and occupation to be framed as a " war. " Why do we make the buy in by continuing to refer to it as a war.

A war has a stated enemy, stated objectives and someone to to be vanquished. Who might that be ? Will victory be 23 million dead Iraqis. Who will raise the white flag to signal surrender ? Why are we-liberals and progressives-- not loudly asking these questions?

[John Q. Citizen]

1. I'm at war with the fascist corporations. But it's a cold war. N/T

[Lexingtonian]

2. We're killing our Cold War army and image

one American GI and Iraqi family at a time.

[SHRED]

3. It's a war against freedom...

...waged by a few elitists to control the masses.

[lildreamer316]

4. Growing up.

.........painful; isn't it?

[Jack Rabbit]

5. I don't know about you, but I'm at war with neocons and corportists

Democracy is a state where:

• Citizenship is universal. Each person born within the boundaries of the state is a citizen, as is one born abroad to at least one citizen parent or who swears allegiance to the state in a rite of naturalization.
• Citizenship is equal. Each citizen has an equal opportunity to participate in and influence public affairs. Every adult citizen shall be enfranchised with the right to vote. Decisions are made by a majority voting based on the principle of one man/one vote.
• Citizenship is inalienable. A guaranteed set of civil liberties is in place to assure full and open public discourse of civic affairs. No citizen may be stripped of his citizenship or otherwise punished by the state for expressing any point of view, no matter how unpopular or even absurd.

[catmandu57]

6. Why, we're at war with terra

and terrist everywhere. Physically, I don't know cetainly not the people of Iraq or Afghanistan though our military is killing many of them.

[C_U_L8R]

7. Good question

Who is the enemy ?
What is this "PLAN" that Bush keeps crowing about?
What is victory? How will you know you've won?

And where the hell is the declaration of war ?

[drdtroit]

9. Republicans have NO ideas, therefore NO plan! n/t

[havocmom]

8. and what, exactly, are the goals?

:shrug:

[ginnyinWI]

10. Well, after watching NOW , yesterday,

I think our government is at war with everyone! They had a thing about TALON, where they spy on peace groups, etc. Anyone can easily get on this list by being in the wrong place. This is so screwed up--any real threats are going to be totally buried among the non-threats.

This is as bad now as the Red scare.

The Commander in Chief is not our commander, unless we happen to be enlisted in the military. But over and over people like Frist refer to him as "ours".

One would think that since we are the world's only superpower, we could stop making wars. But that wouldn't please the military-industrial complex very much, would it? That same group who have so many Congresspeople in their pockets. Peacetime has no profit margins.

[acmavm]

11. War? What are you talking about? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Remember?

My problem is that I never understood what the f**k the mission was. I knew that there was no reason to attack Iraq, so I've been sitting here for three years wondering what it was those assholes thought they accomplished.

[jaysunb]

23. heh heh

and " a good job, Brownie " to you too ! :rofl:

[sheelz]

12. Afghanistan was the

pipeline enemy.

[sheelz]

13. Iraq was the military base enemy.

[donco6]

14. Someone else just posted this question in another thread:

From the movie, Brazil, by Terry Gilliam.

JILL
Who is this war against, Sam?

SAM
Well, terrorists of course.

JILL
How many terrorists have you met? Actual terrorists?

SAM
Actual terrorists? Well ... it's only my first day.


Thanks to Chatterboy.

[MichiganVote]

15. Ourselves

[Elidor]

16. Eastasia

We've always been at war with eastasia.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. Umm the people who don't want us to occupy their country.

[shenmue]

18. Well, they say it's a 'war on terror'...

so I guess we're at war with anyone who's really scared.

[HughBeaumont]

19. The truth is . . .

Bewsch and his neo-clown puppet masters are at war with the poor/middle class of all kinds. American poor, Middle Eastern Poor, European Poor, African poor, Asian Poor, Latin American poor, you name it. They merely created a brown-skinned enemy, call them "terrorists" (even though the terrorists that attacked our country are technically business allies) to appeal to their white evangelical and easily scared suburban (note: not EVERYone from the suburbs or churches, just easily scared and hateful ones) base that hates anything foreign. Use their controlled media to repeat this message over and over again, and you have a "war", whether we declared one or not.

Yet, the REAL war is against the poor and middle classes. Job offshoring, pollution, spying, inflation, taxation, wage cutting, the decreasing ability to start a business, no stock market volatility, GM food, rising debt and trade deficits, exploitation of cheap labor, making the population fearful with every twist and turn . . . you name it, and they're doing it. All while making their BASE believe we're at "war" with some foreign land, when it's all just another corporate oil/commodity/money grab veiled in Old Glory. Rah Rah while pretzel-dent Dickhead trumpets a "Plan for Victory" with a war on "terr.r" that has yet to even start and has created more terrorists than some phantom greybeard on dialysis could ever hope to. He's thanking F the President from his cave while laughing his ass off.

[jaysunb]

24. You win the Prize !

Because, you nailed it ! :toast:

[kenny blankenship]

20. It's a war on peace

It's a war on peacetime economic priorities, peacetime civil liberties, peacetime social organization and progress (equality and fraternity).

Fascists always go to war. Say what you want about Clinton and this or that political party, but this is definite: let a Fascist party take over and you'll soon be at war somewhere, and you'll stay that way until somebody pries the government from their bloody, dead hands.

[CJCRANE]

21. "They" attacked us

so we're fighting "them".

"They" is apparently 19 hijackers (15 from Saudi Arabia, 2 from UAE, 1 from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon).

"Them" is the population of Iraq.

[Swamp Rat]

22. The rich n/t

[Ufomammut]

25. As always, the people are at war with power and privledge

Whether they realize it or not...

[Disturbed]

26. "The Biggest Lie."

The Biggest Lie.

“Surely, in the history of lies told to the population, this is the biggest lie. In the history of secrets, withheld from the American people, this is the biggest secret: that there are classes with different interests in this country. To ignore that—not to know that the history of our country is a history of slaveowner against slave, landlord against tenant, corporation against worker, rich against poor—is to render us helpless before all the lesser lies told to us by people in power.” Howard Zinn

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0321-20.htm