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6 votes
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Israel and Hamas exchange fire in sudden Gaza escalation
6 votes -
Russia is quietly seizing territory in Georgia as it warns of a ‘horrible conflict’ if the Eurasian country joins NATO
21 votes -
Marine kicked out of Marine Corps for role in Charlottesville white supremacist march
14 votes -
The rise of Rome - How Italy was conquered
2 votes -
The fall of Pompey (48 B.C.E.)
4 votes -
Pakistan's sham election - How the army chose Imran Khan
4 votes -
Veterans speak out against the militarization of sports
13 votes -
When a US citizen heard he was on his own country's drone target list, he wasn’t sure he believed it. After five near-misses, he does – and is suing the United States to contest his own execution
34 votes -
What, if anything, makes a morally good war?
I've been consuming the darkness that is wartime histories from the past three or four centuries and I feel like I've encountered a lot of people who had what they believed to be justifiable...
I've been consuming the darkness that is wartime histories from the past three or four centuries and I feel like I've encountered a lot of people who had what they believed to be justifiable reasons to launch wars against other powers. There are people who thought they had divine right to a particular position of power and so would launch a war to assert that god-given right. There are people who believed in a citizen's right to have some (any) say in how their tax money gets used in government and so would fight wars over that. People would fight wars to, as John Cleese once said, "Keep China British." Many wars are started to save the honor of a country/nation. Some are started in what is claimed to be self-defense and later turns out to have been a political play instigated to end what has been a political thorn in their sides.
In all this time, I've struggled to really justify many of these wars, but some of that comes with the knowledge of what other wars have cost in terms of human carnage and suffering. For some societies in some periods, the military is one of the few vehicles to social mobility (and I think tend to think social mobility is grease that keeps a society functioning). Often these conflicts come down to one man's penis and the inability to swallow their pride to find a workable solution unless at the end of a bayonet. These conflicts also come with the winning powers taking the opportunity to rid themselves of political threats and exacting new harms on the defeated powers (which comes back around again the next time people see each other in a conflict).
So help keep me from embracing a totally pacifistic approach to war. When is a war justifiable? When it is not only morally acceptable but a moral imperative to go to war? Please point to examples throughout history where these situations have happened, if you can (though if you're prepared to admit that there has been no justifiable war that you're aware of, I suppose that's fine if bitter).
20 votes -
Beijing hits out at Washington for ‘playing Taiwan card’ after US warships sail through strait
4 votes -
Worried NATO partners wonder if Atlantic alliance can survive Trump. Europeans hope the president who disparages allies and praises autocrats is an aberration but fear problems may run deeper
7 votes -
Australia to spend nearly $7 billion buying unmanned military planes from America
5 votes -
Hiroshima - a 1946 piece exploring how six survivors experienced the atomic bombing and its aftermath
9 votes -
The fallen of World War II
7 votes -
Is anyone here at or going to Advanced Camp in FT Knox?
I'm interested to see if there are any other cadets out there. So let's hear it! I'm posting this from inside the barracks on day 0 of 4th reg Advanced Camp. What regiment is everyone else in?
3 votes -
Federal police investigate threatening letter sent to SAS witness in Afghanistan probe
2 votes -
Thoughts on the World Wars
I've been consuming a ton of media about the world wars lately. There seems to be an inexhaustible supply of historical fiction, records, memoires, and documentaries. But so far, very few things...
I've been consuming a ton of media about the world wars lately. There seems to be an inexhaustible supply of historical fiction, records, memoires, and documentaries. But so far, very few things have come close to painting a cohesive picture.
Most of it focuses on hot spots like Verdun, Pearl Harbor, Dunkirk, Normandy, the haulocaust, the atomic bomb, enigma, u-boats, the luftwaffe, Stalingrad... And I can see why. Even on a microcosm level, the conditions of the stories are unimaginable.
The issue I'm having is that I feel like our cultural memory of these events his been eroded over time. We have these impressions of what we think it was like, but not an overarching understanding of the complex series of events throughout the 20th century. We have an overabundance of records, photographs, film, and documentation in general, but maybe it's the overabundance that makes the digestion such an insurmountable undertaking.
What are your experiences with studying this time period? How do you feel about the quality of your understanding? And finally, do you have any recommendations for myself and others?
14 votes -
Nazi swastika flag flown on Australian Defence vehicle in Afghanistan
5 votes -
US would 'absolutely' welcome Australian naval operations in South China Sea, general says
4 votes -
China hacked a Navy contractor and secured a trove of highly sensitive data on submarine warfare
7 votes -
Australian SAS soldiers committed alleged war crimes in Afghanistan: official report
5 votes -
Three myths most Americans believe (Japanese surrender in WW2, Cold War, nuclear bomb threat)
7 votes -
The American Revolution’s greatest leader was openly gay
14 votes -
Russian pilot found after three decades missing in Afghanistan
6 votes -
Google plans not to renew its contract for Project Maven, a controversial Pentagon drone AI imaging program
7 votes -
NATO-Russia Council meets for first time since Skripal poisoning
3 votes -
Battle for rebel-held Yemen port may trigger humanitarian disaster. Saudi-led forces are eight miles from Hodeidah, where 80% of aid supplies are handled.
4 votes -
Brazil faces calls for return to military dictatorship amid truckers' strike. Days into shutdown that began over fuel prices, some protesters call for military intervention ‘to put the house in order’
8 votes -
Colombia to become NATO's first Latin American 'global partner'
6 votes -
US military funding effort to catch deepfakes and AI trickery
5 votes -
Bear necessities: The big brown bear who helped Polish troops in WWII
4 votes -
They didn't flip: Ukraine claims dolphin army captured by Russia went on hunger strike
6 votes -
Google worker rebellion against military project grows
5 votes -
At least fifty-two Palestinians have been killed and 2,400 wounded by Israeli troops on the deadliest day of violence since the 2014 Gaza war
6 votes -
Man is charged with hacking West Point and government websites
6 votes -
The Battle of Ilerda (49 B.C.E.)
4 votes -
The Texas Revolution Explained
5 votes