[curmudgeonII]

...six invalid wars ...

What exactly does this mean?
1. That the wars were not valid [legitimate]?
2. That the wars were fought by a bunch of disabled soldiers?

[blam]

"What exactly does this mean?"

Don't know. Remember this has been translated at least once.

[JimSEA]

After some thirty years of translating the translations of my Asian wife, I an 90 percent certain that the Chinese word was some form of "not effective" which would be best translated as unsuccessful but the person doing the translation used "not valid" or invalid instead. :)

Language difficulty is a two way street. After many years of attempting to master Thai, I am very capable of delighting friends with my "American thinking" statements. A more serious point would be that it is not possible to get a very deep understanding of a culture without understanding the language and thus the way of thinking.