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From: chabot@amber.DEC (Lisa S. Chabot)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Defeating Reagan matters most
Message-ID: <3805@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Oct-84 17:57:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.3805
Posted: Mon Oct  1 17:57:58 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Oct-84 06:44:19 EDT
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Bill Price  ==  >
> If you remember--or go learn--some history, you will see that war , typically, 
> has a single trigger:
>
> -The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand->WWI.
> -"Remember the Maine"
> -"Remember the Alamo"
> -"Remember Pearl Harbor"
> -Hitler's trumped-up attack on the Polish-border outpost->WWII in Europe.
> -The US economic sanctions against Japan -> Pearl Harbor
> -The Gulf of Tonkin incident-> real war in Viet Nam
> 
> The typical immediate cause of war, regardless of any underlying causes, is
> simply revenge.  Indeed, as in W W II, revenge may also be the underlying cause
> as well.  It is easy to see that if WWIII were to be triggered, it, too, would
> likely be a case of revenge.  Somebody may point out wars that did not have an
> element of revenge, or revenge actions that did not lead towards war.  The lack
> of 1.0 correlation doesn't bother me, and does not affect what follows.

Whoah, Bill, you're going to give people the impression that you think world 
wars are really caused these triggers.  Nonsense.  WWI caused by the 
assasination of Archduke Ferdinand?--nope, the reason is the time was ripe;
Ferdinand was viewed as a bad apple by certain groups, but world wars don't
start because one person gets assasinated.  Pearl Harbor starting WWII?--gee
lots of Europe thought WWII had started years before that; and in fact, the
feeling of the US populace was that we were going to get involved very soon:
the bombing of Pearl Harbor just hastened things (and the bombing was viewed
as more of a threat of invasion than just something to retaliate against).
A more realistic cause for war is "The US economic sanctions against Japan ->
Pearl Harbor".  This is more like it.  That's what war is about: economics.
Rally cries may call one to remember some bloody massacre, but the guys 
commanding the armies, who stay back at home, they don't get all excited and
shed multidinous tears and send our brave soldiers off to get killed just
because 1 duke bought it.  War is fought for gain.  We aren't going to get
back the lives of the dead, so there must be something else that's sought.
The cry of revenge is just to inflame the masses to excell at patriotism.

L S Chabot
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