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I would take this mans comments and expand it in a different direction.

We (meaning the whole collective of the human race) have attempted to "civilize" warfare. There are rules, and laws about what can and can not be done by combatants, civilians, etc.

The problem is that there is nothing "civilized" about war. It is the final form of diplomacy. Beat the snot out of the other side because they will not accept your position or are attempting to push their position onto you, which you can not accept. War is a natural response to this condition.

The problem that we have created is that when a war is fought in a civilized manner, the PERCEPTION of a final victor is never achieved. To win a war, you must hurt the other side so badly that the looser must give up their "unacceptable" position and accept the position of the victor.

Under today's civilized rules, no one side is allowed to exercise that extent of domination. For example, Israel is not allowed to kick Arabs out of the country.

I believe that if the normal rules of warfare were to allow the victor to set the rules (to the victor goes the spoils), if the leaders of countries KNEW that there was a risk that their homes, families, freedoms, their very way of life was at risk -- then they would be much LESS likely to go to war.

Would Egypt go to war against Israel if they KNEW, and I mean really knew, that once Israel defeated them, that they would have full right to do ANYTHING to the surviving population, deportation, execution, even enslavement? I would say not.

War is a terrible thing, and when you try to make it into anything else, you are only lying to yourself.

War is a terrible thing, and when you try to make it into anything else, you are only lying to yourself.

I couldn't agree with you more. To that end, let me correct you in one place: You don't "beat the snot out of" your enemy, you KILL them. War is about killing. Let's keep that in perspective. Those animals in Fallujah don't need punished, or taught a lesson, they should be killed. War is a horrible thing. Killing others isn't something that we consider a good thing, (unlike the muslims). However, in order to secure our way of life, and to get our enemies to submit, we must kill some of them.