James Z writes: >> Well said and to go along with that, when the
next REAL war comes along (please bonus points to anyone who
can tell me when the last one was) <<
And Azie replied:
Currently!! It started back in the late 70's when Our Military
and Our Embassies were bombed by Muslim Extremist. If you
don't think that this war is real, just wait and see what happens
when we do not win it.. No one in this country will be safe. It
is impossible to "make a deal" with a people that wants us
dead. We must win - not pull out.<<<
While I agree that there is "war" currently going on, you have missed my point entirely. I was referring to an actual WAR as defined by our Constitution, in other words, one "declared" by Congress.
Both the Executive and Legislative branch of our government have been derelict in their duties since 8 Dec 1941. And by extension so has the Judicial for allowing them to get away with it. Some time after the end of WW2, the 3 branches of government decided that following the Constitutional requirements of actually agreeing on the decision of starting/joining a war were too restrictive and developed the "Executive Order," and the War Powers Act. These bit's of legislation I find to be almost direct opposition to the Constitution.
Additionally, and unfortunately, we WILL loose the current conflict because of a couple of facts.
First it is a primarily a RELIGOUS conflict, not a political one. Since the West generally have a very wide split between Church and State this concept is completely unknown to us, and it is a very strong motivator of the enemy.
Second it is a guerilla war and the only times the monkeys (play on words) have lost a guerilla war is when the "professional" fighters have killed everything that moved until the few monkeys that weren't dead cried uncle. While I can't say with authority, I believe, the only time this happened was when Longshanks killed everything that moved in Scotland (including Braveheart). And that sort of behavior doesn't fly so well today, or really since they allowed the media to tag along for the fight. In WW2 that is exactly how we beat the Japanese, first by killing all of them on the islands they were occupying and then by demonstrating that we would do the same thing on the mainland. And before the anti-nuclear weapons folks crucify me, please recall that our firebombings of Tokyo killed 400,000 civilians while Little Boy and Fat Man took out less than 200,000.
Conflicts since WW2
Korea, never declared, just a "police action," and not over, just the longest cease fire on record.
Viet Nam, never declared.
Grenada, never declared, at least we won.
Gulf War 1, never declared, we quit before we finished.
Gulf War 2, never declared, might not have been needed if the actor and George 1 had done their jobs properly. See the next comment. And if became needed, due to Bin Laden it should have be directed at his homeland Saudi Arabia. Additionally, I think a more appropriate response would have been to destroy Mecca and Medina, they took out the "Temples of Capitalism" we should have taken out the "Temples of Islam."
Afghanistan, never declared, would have been unnecessary if the actor and George 1 had done their jobs properly. After training and arming the Taliban, the US left them in the lurch when the Russian tanks rolled out of Afghanistan (can we say the monkeys winning another guerilla war?). Reagan and Bush 1 should have jumped right in with humanitarian aid including food, rebuilding resources and educational resources.
Jim
Former Navy EOD officer
'03 Dak CC missing 2 pistons and 2 driven wheels
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