The Troubles

[jediuser598]

You're ok with killing people who've surrendered?

What exactly are you not ok with, in war? Is there anything that's off the table?

Once hydrogen bombs are on the table, what could possibly be off?

I was trained to fight World War Three, so, it's hard for me to imagine anything being off the table, in that paradigm, certainly.

Depends on the situation, you'd have to be more specific.

Any scenario.

You have a prisoner of war. What should you not do to him?

You have a civilian that you have stopped on the side of the road, you've checked them and their vehicle and found that they have no weapons, nor explosive devices. What are you not allowed to do to them?

I mean name a scenario, what are you rules of engagement? Should soldiers be allowed to enter a war zone and shoot any one at any time, and how dare anyone deny them that on any moral grounds whatsoever because this is war and war is hell?

[Smitty-48]

Well, the Americans had free fire zones in Vietnam, where they were authorized to shoot anyone on sight, so, like I said, depends on the situation, rules of engagement are nothing, if not flexible. Nothing about an ROE is written in stone.

I suppose the trick is don't even give them a chance to surrender, just shoot them before they can ever raise their hands in surrender, how you like them apples, John McCain?

[Speaker to Animals]

Just to be clear, we are the people who firebombed entire cities and dropped atomic bombs on human beings..

[Smitty-48]

Just to be clear, we are the people who firebombed entire cities and dropped atomic bombs on human beings..

And as that was under a formal declaration of war, and those cities were military targets, defended by forces trying to shoot the bombers down, all perfectly legal, under the Hague Convention which governed such actions, so, "the whole war was a war crime", Hanoi Dan? Yeah, ah, no actually.

This is why international law is such a farce, LBJ breaks the law, but FDR didn't, how is LBJ a war criminal but FDR is not? Has nothing to do with morality, the laws of armed conflict are situational and capricious, and beyond the law, what are the rules? Who knows, they just make them up as they go along, pulling circular nonsense out of their asses.

[jediuser598]

Just to be clear, we are the people who firebombed entire cities and dropped atomic bombs on human beings..

We also owned slaves, thus why should slavery be illegal or looked at as bad? You should just get off your high horse and stop telling me that slavery is bad.

[Smitty-48]

Nobody said war isn't bad, war is bad, we can agree on that, but so what?

We're a warlike species, it's ingrained in our DNA, we are the pinnacle of complex life that we know of, but we are territorial apex predators by nature, what do you want us to do for you, undo 4.5 billion years of evolution?

[Okeefenokee]

Just to be clear, we are the people who firebombed entire cities and dropped atomic bombs on human beings..

We also owned slaves, thus why should slavery be illegal or looked at as bad? You should just get off your high horse and stop telling me that slavery is bad.

Hey DB, I mean massuh, set him straight. They signed a contract!

[heydaralon]

IRISH TROUBLES QUICKFIX:

Instead of trying to fight about Northern Ireland, the UK should just absorb Ireland and merge the two. That way, they are united by being dominated by the British, just like in the past. Everyone wins, everyone is happy. Can someone explain what is wrong with this plan?

[jediuser598]

Nobody said war isn't bad, war is bad, we can agree on that, but so what?

We're a warlike species, it's ingrained in our DNA, we are the pinnacle of complex life that we know of, but we are territorial apex predators by nature, what do you want us to do for you, undo 4.5 billion years of evolution?

It's all Vae Victis when it comes down to it. Has been since the beginning. Doesn't mean we can't try for something better.

[Smitty-48]

It's all Vae Victis when it comes down to it. Has been since the beginning. Doesn't mean we can't try for something better.

But it's vastly better, a handful of bandits and associates on the fringes of the empire get shaqed periodically, with practically no US casualties whatsoever, which historically Americans would have called "peace" not war, and yet here you are, blubbering on hysterically as if it was an Hiroshima every week.