"There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare." - Sun Tzu, Art of War, 500 BC

[grahamhgreen]

As Commander in Chief, Obama needs to understand this ancient principal of war, and get the hell out of Iraqistan, IMHO.


http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War

[dipsydoodle]

1. I can only conclude from what you've written

that's it is infact you who should be President given that you do understand the situation.

[Fumesucker]

3. Perhaps you can point to an example of a nation benefiting from a prolonged period of war?

The War of the Roses?

The Thirty Years War?

Vietnam (both France and the USA)?

????

[dipsydoodle]

12. I was agreeing with the OP

not disagreeing.

[Fumesucker]

14. Sorry, it sure sounded like sarcasm from where I sit..

I guess I should have my snarkometer recalibrated. :)

:hi:

[dipsydoodle]

16. Yep - recalibration needed

Trust me - if I was being sarcastic you'd really know it. :)

:hi:

[wookie72]

9. SUn Tzu for president?

I'd sign up for that.

[wookie72]

11. I read Sun Tzu in 2005

And I realized how nearly everything in it was advice that Bush ignored in the Iraq war:

-Go in with enough troops at the beginning.
-Don't rely on other nations for troops.
-Oh, and most importantly, DON'T START A WAR UNLESS YOU HAVE TO.

[midnight]

2. K&R

[Autumn]

4. Most of the little people seem to get it,

too bad Obama doesn't get it.

[SomeGuynTexas]

5. It really sort of depends on your viewpoint....

...if you're a burka wearing woman buried chest deep in the ground awaiting stoning for some perceived crime, I can see where she might argue that a little war might be a good thing.

..if you're an overweight office worker sipping a low fat organic-orange-mocca-latte staring at a cheap made in China 14 inch view screen all day, a little "war" might be a bad thing.

Just sayin...War brings change. Change is a good thing. For some folks.

:-)

[Sanity Claws]

6. War is a bad thing for most

The burka wearing woman may want change but she doesn't want war in which she will lose her children.
War is not the only way to change things. In fact, I'd like to see an instance where subjugated women started any war to effect change or for any reason. I can't think of any.

As Smedley Butler said, "War is a racket."

[bemildred]

8. "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good" is not a new idea.

But the OP was about nations, great big aggregates, and the point was that highly militarized societies don't do well in the long run, they go bankrupt or they lose, or both.

[EstimatedProphet]

13. You do get around, don't you?

[TK421]

23. so does chlamydia n/t

[grahamhgreen]

15. Bush set up corrupt Islamic republics in Iraq and Afghanistan,

Sharia law still overides the constitution.

By most metrics, both countries are worse off now, as is the US and the world.

[HughBeaumont]

18. What do sedentary workers have to do with anything?

If you realized anything about Afghanistan, we're never going to liberate the stoning victim; that isn't what we're there to do. If anything, our prolonged presence will create more.

[Javaman]

19. "a little war" is never a good thing.

"Just sayin...War brings change. Change is a good thing. For some folks."

good for the corporations. Is that who you support?

[Matariki]

24. You've got it backwards pal.

sitting there in front of your computer screen braying about how good war is for women.

[SomeGuynTexas]

26. I don't think we're pals. I don't know you. Which women by the way?

Which women by the way? The ones getting stoned?

Or the ones like my sister serving her second tour in Afghanistan?

Call her "pal" and she'd likely kick you in the nuts.

Been there. Had it done. Got the sore nuts.

[Matariki]

27. I'm not surprised

you've been there - kicked in the nuts that is.

[SomeGuynTexas]

28. Oh c'cmon. Who hasn't had a sister kick them in the nuts?

She had a good reason. She was throwing the fire batons up in the air and we were *both* watching those suckers a little too close.

I forgot that she twirled and kicked and kept on with her routine and got a little too close.

What? You thought she kicked me out of anger?

Maybe in your dysfunctional little family.

Not mine. She luvvvs me. I get postcards all the time from the 'stan.

How about you? You ever been kicked in your nuts?

LOL....

[glitch]

29. War is bad for nations and their citizens, very good for a few war profiteers.

And their cheerleaders who somehow seem to get some kind of weird benefit.

[pinboy3niner]

30. You might say war is not healthy for nations and...

War is not healthy for children and other living things.



Posters and other items with this image available at Another Mother for Peace:
http://www.anothermother.org/

[eridani]

31. The war we started in Afghanistan supporting the whackjob fundies

--put women in Afghanistan where they are now. All we are doing is stoking a permanent war of each against all there, which women always, always lose.

[druidity33]

32. that's funny...

because under Saddam's rule, women didn't have to wear burkas. There were women doctors, lawyers, judges... and they were free of the most restrictive practices of Sharia law because Saddam ran a SECULAR government.

Where are those women now? Exiled, refugeed, dead, hiding or in danger... many are in Syria, unable to emigrate or to follow their profession.

Change was not a good thing for Iraq in this instance. Unfortunately, what's happening in Afghanistan looks to be following the same path of disintegration...


:(

[NuttyFluffers]

7. yup. tech and details change, the human is war's (on earth) constant.

war exhaustion is real, for both the invader and invaded. benefits do not accrue in a greater measure by prolonged warfare. the heart of afghanistan's history is the knowledge of this irrefutable human fact.

everyday the hole gets deeper. it will destroy us. there is no victory or safety. we must leave and then ask if we can return as a guest -- there is no other way. logistics and morality arguments means nothing; only paying respect to the way humans think during war matters. disobey this and fail.

[ixion]

10. Indeed... Sun Tzu, despite still being very, very relevant

seems largely lost on both politicians and the military.

[harun]

17. The nation doesn't benefit, but the Defense Contractors sure do.

[Romulox]

20. Nailed it. nt

[grahamhgreen]

21. Exactly - the only reason we are still there. nt

[Blue_Tires]

22. For the last time, these wars were never about some nation benefiting...

They were about borderless corporations, contractors, weapons makers and all other kinds of profiteers cashing in...

Shrewd corporations know how to profit no matter who is in charge or who is winning...All they want is for it to keep going perpetually...

[grahamhgreen]

25. +1