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Just now: Trump: "The lives of American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties - that often happens in war." Another republican president starting a w
by sekai 7mo ago
Just now:
Trump: "The lives of American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties - that often happens in war."
Another republican president starting a war in the middle east, once again sacrificing American lives.
- alex_young 7mo agoA war? Of course not. It’s a major combat operation. Only congress can declare wars. We haven’t had any in decades. They should call it the Dept. of Major Combat Operations.
- zabzonk 7mo agoThe USA never even declared the Vietnam "conflict" as a war, or Korea, come to that, though that did at least have the backing of the UN.
- consp 7mo agoAs soon a country agrees to enter a conflict on a side, which the original axes declare to be a war, it's at war. You can tell the media whatever you want of course.
- gpt5 7mo agoThe US didn’t declare war since WW2 because such a declaration would give the president disruptive powers (such as the power to seize factories). In fact, after Vietnam war congress specifically created a law to restrict hostilities without congress approval to up to 60 days, which is what the current (and prior) administrations are acting on.
- riffraff 7mo agoIt's not just the US, very few wars have been formally declared after WW2, because we all learned war is bad™, so we added more and more rules (both international and national) to make it harder to do it. But the reasons wars existed didn't go away, so this just resulted in more and more people getting killed in "special military operations" or similar things. See e.g. "Why States No Longer Declare War"[0]. [0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228896825_Why_States_No_Longer_Declare_War https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228896825_Why_State...
- adrian_b 7mo agoThat article says that nowadays countries no longer declare war, because now there are a lot of international treaties that restrict what may be done during wars. Not declaring war provides a workaround, allowing the states to do whatever they desire, without constraints, while avoiding being accused that they do not observe their obligations assumed internationally. Seems plausible.
- gljiva 7mo agoIsn't the currently trendy term "special military operation"?
- dragonwriter 7mo agoThe occurrence of a war is a fact whether or not it is declared, and whether or not the actor waging war does so consistent with the legal requirements their nation's laws put on doing so.
- helaoban 7mo agoI like Special Military Operation better.
- ambentzen 7mo ago"Some of you are going to die, but that is a sacrifice I'm willing to make"
- somenameforme 7mo agoWhile I think this (and Venezuela) are arguably the biggest missteps this administration is making, it's hardly a partisan point. The political establishment loves war more than perhaps anything else. In 2016 alone Obama bombed half a dozen different countries with more than 26,000 munitions for an average rate of three bombs dropped every hour, every day, for a year. [1] Nobel Peace Prize embodied. I think the only way to get away from the warmongering is to go for a third party. But even they would likely be corrupted by the excessive influence of the military industrial complex. Eisenhower was not only right, but plainly prophetic. [1] - https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/list-of-countries-obama-bombed https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/list-of-c...
- hvb2 7mo agoNot defending that peace price but: Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation. Trump this time around didn't inherit a major us deployment in a conflict area. No Iraq, no Afghanistan. Also, he's doing military strikes by himself, no Congress involved. Syrian and Libia were both essentially civil wars with an oppressive regime with Syria using allegedly chemical weapons. Your source is a very weird site. Countries Obama bombed 2026??? What does that even mean. Is it just a typo in the main heading and the title?
- somenameforme 7mo agoLarge scale deployments shifted under Obama to widescale bombing campaigns. The site mentions its various sources such as this [1] which mentions that Obama also increased the number of drone strikes by an order of magnitude relative to his predecessor. To be clear I'm not picking on Obama, but saying solely that this isn't a partisan issue. "They" all love war. And places being in a state of internal conflict, conflict which is itself often backed and fomented by US intelligence agencies and backed proxy forces, is hardly some reason to go bomb them. Even moreso when you look at results. See what Libya turned into, and what Syria is now turning into. It turns out that Al Qaeda in a suit is still Al Qaeda, to literally nobody's surprise if you're even vaguely familiar with our history of backing extremists and putting them in power, something which we have done repeatedly. This war, if it escalates, is not going to be good for Iran, the people of Iran, or likely even the US. The only country that might come out a winner is Israel, but even that might not end up being the case, as Iran's retaliation will likely focus on them. To say nothing of longer term consequences. [1] - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-president-barack-obama-bomb-map-drone-wars-strikes-20000-pakistan-middle-east-afghanistan-a7534851.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-preside...
- giggert 7mo ago[flagged]
- giggert 7mo ago[flagged]
- viking123 7mo agoAmerican boomers are truly like robots.
- jjtwixman 7mo agoAmericans voted for no new wars, and especially no new wars in the sandbox, and they got a new war in the sandbox. Americans really have to be among the most gullible people on the planet. Not to mention that Trump is a paedophile, the open corruption, attempted coup etc... it's like that Hemingway quote. The decline of the USA has been gradual, and then very sudden.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoI thought he wasn't allowed to start a war without a vote in congress?
- TheOtherHobbes 7mo ago"Some of you may die, but that is a risk I am willing to take."
- amunozo 7mo agoOnce again mass killing civilians and setting a country of 100 million inhabitants into chaos. But yes, poor American soldiers.
- beloch 7mo agoThis may be the bloodiest "Wag the Dog" in modern history. They may create an Ig Nobel peace prize specifically for this.
- readitalready 7mo ago[flagged]
- koshergweilo 7mo agoI can't believe I have to say this on HN but no, the Iraq war was not started for Israel. Yes Netanyahu did testify before Congress but he was not testifying on behalf of Israel and the Israeli government quietly warned against invading Iraq. I noticed that you somehow failed to mention 9/11, Colin Powell, George Bush or Osama Bin Laden, nor the fact that the Invasion has bipartisan support and was overwhelming popular with the American public.
- readitalready 7mo agoYes, thanks for confirming that the Iraq war was started because of Israel, and not oil. None of what you mentioned specifically discredits Israel as the primary cause of the Iraq war. You ARE aware of the Heritage foundation, right?
- Revanche1367 7mo agoYou guys really like revising history in realtime, huh? As if we didn’t live through that era ourselves. It was never a remote secret that Israel kept pushing the US to attack Iraq and had done so for years before 9/11, which Iraq had no part in anyhow.
- readitalready 7mo ago[flagged]
- lonelyasacloud 7mo ago> Trump: "The lives of American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties - that often happens in war." Coming from President Bone Spurs ...
- ekianjo 7mo agoYou forgot the Obama wars for some reason?
- ActorNightly 7mo agoThere were no Obama wars.
- heresie-dabord 7mo agoTrump is calling them heroes now. But we know what he really thinks: "suckers and losers". https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/john-kelly-confirms-trump-privately-disparaged-us-service-members-vete-rcna118543 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/john-kelly-con...