The main difference (apart from the political difference you mentioned) is that declaring war on terrorism is like declaring war on blitzkrieg. Terrorism is a technique of attacking an someone or a nation - it is criminal activity. And because they feed the fears of their populations, it allow the leaders to illegally hold people in places like Guantanamo Bay, take them to Pakistan or Uzbekistan to torture them (because it is not allowed in the home country). As a matter of international (and actually domestic) law in most Western countries there can be no such thing as war of terrorism - and the legalities are important because once there is war or armed conflict certain legal consequences flow - such as right to POW status - and you can hold POW until the war is over. So an endless war allows the US to hold people forever - never release them. I agree with Boyle's article posted here - I do not believe that there has been any aspect of Bush's war in Iraq which as not either been tainted with illegality or blatantly illegal. In the Vietnam war there was what would be recognized as a war or armed conflict - in the spurious war on terror there is not and never can be -
Garth Cartledge At 03:07 PM 11/17/2004, Jim wrote: > The underlying difference between Iraq and Vietnam is that there is >no Soviet-backed "North Vietnam" > >The 'War on Terror' is an endless war against an ever-changing >faceless bogeyman. Change the name, change the face, change the >country, it's just a continuously shifting enemy that can never be >defeated, since it can't even be properly defined. There will always >be another bin Laden, Hussein, Zakawi, just keep changing the name and >you will keep on fighting, keep on 'liberating' people from their >homeland, from life, from the fatal error of not believing in the >manifest destiny of neo-fascists and Halliburton > > >--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Rowland Scherman ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Pretty gruesome pix. Not very good pix, though. Where is Robert Capa, > > Ernie Pyle, and Edward R Murrow when you need them? > > > > > > There is no way that we (the US) will ever be successful in Iraq, or >indeed > > the whole Middle East. Not with free fire zones, depleted uranium >shells, > > an air force with no opposition, and all the rest. It IS another >Viet Nam. > > > > Who brought us to this? > > > > > > Rowland > > > > > > > ----- > / o o \ >===OO=====OO============================================= >(4)Portals (2)News Wikis (2)Conferences - No BuSHIT! >Start here: http://pnews.org/ (On Internet since 1982) >http://pnews.org/PhpWiki/ (West Coast News Wiki) >http://g0lem.net/PhpWiki/ (East Coast News Wiki) >========================================================= > FIGHT THE RIGHT! >================== > >Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/XgSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ----- / o o \ ===OO=====OO============================================= (4)Portals (2)News Wikis (2)Conferences - No BuSHIT! Start here: http://pnews.org/ (On Internet since 1982) http://pnews.org/PhpWiki/ (West Coast News Wiki) http://g0lem.net/PhpWiki/ (East Coast News Wiki) ========================================================= FIGHT THE RIGHT! ================== Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rhetoric-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
