Do We Solve Problems By Who Has The Biggest Stick?

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

Do We Solve Problems By Who Has The Biggest Stick?
(posted with permission from http://sane-ramblings.blogspot.com/2011/03/do-we-solve-problems-by-who-has-biggest.html)

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is a tyrant who is killing his own people and now so will we kill Libyans in the name of protecting them. But what kind of reasoning is this? Was there any serious attempt at mediation before launching this war? Must we always use might makes right to resolve our differences?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Vietnam War spoke of his experience in calming inner-city gang violence. Time and again the gang leaders would tell him, they are just doing what the U.S. government is doing in Vietnam, brutally settling their differences. Dr. King would explain to them this only sets the basis for future gang attacks as everyone will have a score to settle.

As we've seen in all the wars since Vietnam, including the current Iraq and Afghan Wars, that is very much the case. In the weeks preceeding the Libya attack, there were opportunities for serious dialogue, but they were not taken, and then suddenly there are the missile attacks for the U.S. and its allies have far more weapons than Libya and presumably might makes right.

If we want peace, which is always what we say, we must seek it through mutual respect and dialogue and only when all other means have been exhausted should one consider a military intervention. For in the end, wars kill, maim and orphan as they destroy everything in their path, however good the stated intentions.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Pretty much.

:shrug:

[GeorgeGist]

16. Ditto

[Statistical]

2. Violence has solved more problems in the history of mankind that just about anything else.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

4. ...and created a bunch, too. nt

[anarch]

6. good to keep in mind. I'm going to start using violence more often in my personal dealings

Trying to be a pacifist has availed me nothing; from now on I'm going to start using more violence.

[Statistical]

13. I am not saying it is a good thing or even desirable just pointing out the fact.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. How many has peace solved?

Comparatively?


:popcorn:

[FiveGoodMen]

14. We'd have to try peace out before we could properly answer that question

I don't think that experiment has been run yet.

[Buzz Clik]

10. The Aussie kid (Casey?) who body slammed the bully demonstrated the need for judicious use of force.

It's not the first option, but if you make it clear that force is not an option at all, the bullies of the world will make your life a living hell.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

23. k 4 answer

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

24. mini-kick 4 answer

[mdmc]

3. we want oil

there have been far worse atrocities that we never got into because there was no oil (Sudan, you name it)..
NATO is interested in OIL
UN wants OIL
Rebel defiance was causing OIL to cost more.
We need to stabilize the situation or PAY MORE for OIL..
(and don't we already pay more for oil)..

and to answer your question - yes - might makes right. Or in other words, we would never impose a no fly zone on a country that could actually stop us (or give us a run for our money).

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

12. So oil is involved again...

I thought so, too.

[Zanzoobar]

5. Always have, always will.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Or, the biggest dick. Politicians and generals love waving theirs around.

To show how "tough" they are. They get them "standing proud" when sending the cannon-fodder off to kill and die for whatever good cause they're selling..or buying from the MIC.

[pampango]

9. Gaddafi apparently does. The UN doesn't often resort to "big sticks" but did so

in this instance to protect civilians.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

11. But don't you hate it when we kill those we are hoping to protect?

Because war is ugly, and shit happens.

[LWolf]

15. Maybe "who is the biggest dick" would be more accurate. nt

[badtoworse]

17. Not who has? Somebody get a ruler!

[LWolf]

22. I think it works for both.

;)

[Marblehead]

18. we are like

monkeys fighting over bananas, only with really deadly sticks

[McCamy Taylor]

19. No, but if France and Great Britain jump over a cliff, we have to do it too.

[FLPanhandle]

20. Of course.

Not only has it been a hallmark of our entire history, it's a pattern of our entire branch of apes.

[timtom]

21. Actually, ipso facto, yes.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

25. The author adds...

One must understand the power of non-violence as shown by Gandhi in South Africa and in overthrowing British rule of India, or of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in overcoming the powers of segregation in the U.S. or of Nelson Mandela overthrowing the white rule of South Africa or of the current peoples’ peaceful revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East. Non-violence is an enormous weapon but it takes incredible courage to use it.