[FREE] stratfor (fwd)

[Karsten M. Self]

on Sun, Sep 30, 2001 at 05:55:50PM -0400, James B. DiGriz (jbdigriz at dragonsweb.org) wrote:
> auto301094 at hushmail.com wrote:

> dict.org cites Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913):
> 
> War War, n. OE. & AS. werre; akin to OHG. werra scandal,

<...>

>     1. A contest between nations or states, carried on by force,

<...>

>     Note: As war is the contest of nations or states, it always
>           implies that such contest is authorized by the monarch
>           or the sovereign power of the nation. 

Which neatly gets you into the problem of what to call a "civil war".

I've had this discussion with several European friends.  Seems there's a
few definitions of "war" to be found, even in standard dictionaries.
Not all refer to nations or states.  Others may note that a "nation" is
not identical to a "state".  There are stateless nations (e.g.:
Palestine), and states which are host to people of several nations
(e.g.:  the Swiss Federation).

I use the somewhat informal, though largely conformant, definitions of:

   Nation:  a group of people identified by common culture, language,
   beliefs, or institutions.  (my own distilation)

   War:  armed hostilities, especially between nations.  (The Oxford
   Encyclopedic English Dictionary).

One of the most asinine arguments I've heard to date was a commentator
on the BBC/PRI "The World" radio program a couple of weeks back.  Her
statement was that by calling this "a war", the US was validating the
deaths at the WTC/P5 attacks as casualties of war.

Bollox.

Deaths aren't justified or not.  What declaring war (formally or
otherwise) does is put both combatents and other parties on notice (as
the US was most decidedly not prior to the attacks) that there is a
state of armed hostilities.  Actions supportive of the (admittedly ill
defined) enemy may be construed as acts of war against the US.  And
innocents are best advised to stay out of the hot zone.

Peace.  By any means.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
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