How credible is it to say "It is not a war"?

[kentuck]

When we may fire cruise missiles every day for a month or two?

How can that be war if we are only destroying airfields, bridges, roads, and Syrian troops?

how could anyone call that "war"?

[msongs]

1. 9/11 was not a war according to current propaganda. use that standard nt

[HooptieWagon]

2. Nor was Pearl Harbor.

Only military targets, no boots on the ground. Nope, no war there.

[Iggo]

3. Nor was the Korean vacation they sent my Dad on back in '51.

[BluzCozmic]

4. to destroy with hostility is always war

The term "war" is generic, ill defined and overused like it's Islamic counterpart "jihad". But there are 3 basic elements. First, there must be hostility such as suggested by the phrase "war of words". Second, there must be an enemy such as with the "war on terror" or "war on Christmas women". Genocide, a cousin of war, is not an act of war, even if masked by or occurring during a conflict. The gassing of European Jews and nuclear bombing of Japanese cities during war are viewed my most as acts of murder rather than war despite their wartime rationals. This suggests that to be "war" there must be some reciprocal symmetry.

[polichick]

5. It's not war; it's "sending a message."

[kentuck]

6. If the tables were turned and we were hit by missiles?

Would that be war??

[polichick]

7. I was just being glib - of course, it's war...

I keep thinking about what we're gonna do when other countries start sending drones our way and our families are seen as collateral damage.