(April 24, 2016 at 5:40 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Brian, you can't correctly point out that people get emotionally worked up for war and then get all huffy when someone points out how easy it is to do.
We kid ourselves that we can drop a bomb in the middle of a town and act all surprised when civilians get caught in the blast. We coined the phrases "surgical strike" and "collateral damage" for when the "surgery" gets a little slipshod. Are we full of shit? Yes. Do we care whether or not the people in the blast radius are "real muslims?" No. "War is hell," as Sherman said.
Of course war is hell, but that does not mean we have to default to it, or treat all individuals caught up in it as sub human. The problem with "all or nothing" today ultimately are nukes. So even if we don't give a shit about them, a nuclear war would disrupt the entire planet, and would even make life on our side hell too. You still have to pick a strategy that has the right effect without going overboard. If Bush didn't teach us that, I don't know what will.
