Hmmm - this is a complicated discussion. The "issues" are often not what they seem.

I figure that every war has at least two issues involved. One would be the issue that causes the Grand High Poobahs (those who play the King Game)to start the war, (economics, greed, territory, etc.) and the other a reason for the "common people" to support the war and fight in it. Often this latter issue is different for the adversaries. In the U.S. civil war, it was to abolish slavery for the north, but to halt northern agression for the south. (Please allow me to be a bit simplistic for the sake of discussion.) In the book "The Killer Angels" by Jeff Shaara, about the battle of Gettysburg, there is an incident in which northern soldiers capture some southern soldiers and ask them about slavery. The southerners say slavery is wrong, none of them would ever have slaves even if they could afford them, but that's not what they're fighting about anyway.

In the gulf war, there was the issue of oil, but there was also the issue of allowing a big country to invade a smaller one and take over by force of arms.

These "common people" issues have to be good ones, that hold water and stand on their own or they won't work. In Vietnam we were fighting to save the French rubber plantations, but we were also fighting to keep south Vietnam free from a communist takeover.

The question becomes which issues do you look at and which are valid? Should we have not fought the gulf war because the issue of who controls the oil is a bad one, or should we have fought it anyway because of Iraqi agression? Should us "common people" say ok, that's a good enough reason to fight, regardless of the the issues of concern to the Kings?

War is a horrible thing, and extracts a horrible price, as the Vietnam Memorial attests. Is the issue good enough to pay that price for it?

PS - GUEST, you have some excellent points in your messages, but I suspect many people disregard them because you come across as something of a vent for fecal matter. Try toning it down.

O'Meara