Comment by wartywhoa23

2 days ago

Many complain on negativism in HN comments, but how in the world can a sane person express anything positive when there's a hell-bent will in conjunction with the "next war"?

29 comments

wartywhoa23

Reply
strictnein  2 days ago

Are you under the impression that humanity could reach a state where there is never another major war?

I don't know how one would reach that conclusion, least of all a Major at the nation's leading military educational institute. Nothing "hell-bent" about it.

  • pjc50  2 days ago

    People were starting to think that way at the "end of history" period between the Cold War and 9/11. At that time the major powers were not involved in wars, and it was believed that regional ones could be "solved" like Yugoslavia.

    9/11 was a huge success for Bin Laden's goal of restarting a forever war, though.

    • throw-the-towel  2 days ago

      > People were starting to think that way at the "end of history" period between the Cold War and 9/11.

      And between WW1 and WW2. And just before WW1, during the Belle Époque. And probably before that, too.

paulluuk  2 days ago

I consider myself an optimist, but given that the US has been in 229 wars over it's 249 years since founding, it seems highly unlikely that there wouldn't be a "next war".

  • xp84  2 days ago

    There’s nothing peculiar about the US, every country or even tribe has fought many wars.

    • krapp  2 days ago

      Not every country or tribe has been engaged in near continuous violence for over two centuries. That isn't simply "fighting many wars" it's being "existentially bound to warfare." The US is peculiar. It's the nation born of a continent-wide campaign of genocide and plunder. It's the only Western nation that couldn't give up slavery without a civil war. It's the only nation to wage nuclear war, and did so primarily against civilians. It's (for the time being) the world's only superpower, with a military orders of magnitude larger than any other. It put the right to shoot people into its Constitution because its founders wanted a government that normalized regular revolutionary violence as a civic principle.

      The US is weirdly attached to violence and war in ways you only tend to find in modern dictatorships or the empires of old.

      3 replies →

  • wartywhoa23  2 days ago

    My point is that war is the worst thing that humans can engage in, and that the prevailing sentiment is that constant war is an immutable status-quo, and hence it's okay, there's nothing we can do except downvoting those fucking negativists.

    • eth0up  2 days ago

      I think the folks disagreeing with you maybe haven't spent much time in war. Almost certainly some in harsh skirmishes, but I reckon a few Nam, Korea and WWII vets would at least entertain your position on the subject. Pretty much every meta variation of terror has surfaced or has the potential to surface in war. Parts of Ukraine, I think, easily represent hell on Earth, for both sides.

      Edit: I will go a bit further..

      I consider Military the greatest power on Earth. It's sacred, necessary. But those who abuse its power commit, in my view, the greatest of sins. I don't mean the soldiers who fight, but those making the decisions of who they fight. The soldiers do their job, often willingly. And they are the ones who face the consequences. To betray them by corruption is the ultimate betrayal. War is a power that, I think, should be reserved for situations with no other option. Mercenaries not considered.

      2 replies →

marssaxman  2 days ago

Your concern is reasonable but misdirected. This article is a publication of the "Modern War Institute", a research organization at West Point, the US Army military academy; it is literally their job to anticipate and plan for the next war, whatever it may happen to be. Deciding whether those plans ought to be used is a completely different responsibility.

alansaber  2 days ago

Comparing the negativity of HN to the inevitability IRL warfare is absolutely hilarious, but I take your point