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Civilized war or WAR?

Civilized war or WAR!?


  • Total voters
    19

Kal'Stang

Banned
DP Veteran
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
42,744
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Location
Bonners Ferry ID USA
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Independent
Lets go to a galaxy far far away....Yeah, geeky and cheesy I know but hey, its going to get cheesier. :shrug: :mrgreen:

In this galaxy you have two factions that are warring against each other. The Light side and the Dark side. But don't let the names fool you. On both sides there are normal, every day people that essentially believe the exact same things and believe in doing what is Right and True. Neither side is religious. Both sides have equal rights for everyone. There is no racial discrimination. The only reason for the war is resources. Lets say....water. That particular galaxy is low on water. Which they of course need to survive. In between these two factions territories is a band of worlds that is chalk full of fresh water. Both sides have mutually agreed, before the war started, to not even come with in 50 light years of those planets until there is a victor in their war to see who gets the water. (for those that love semantics, they travel to different planets via directed wormhole technology which gets them from point A to point B of their choosing in a matter of seconds..but it only works inside their galaxy due to a highly radiation and magnetic bubble that wraps their entire galaxy and collapses worm holes that attempt to go beyond it)

If you were in charge of one of these factions how would you conduct your war?

Civilized war in which you spare innocent civilians as much as possible?

or

WAR! in which you exterminate anything that gets in your way?

Remember, the survival of your faction means winning the war in order to get that precious water. If you lose, your faction gets none of that water. The poll choices are your only options. There is no middle ground. No haggling. No diplomacy available as both factions refuse to come to the negotiation table, or even talk to each other for that matter as the war has started. In fact any attempt to contact or talk to the other side will get you summarily executed right on the spot. Cameras which you have no control over and cannot destroy as it would mean instant death for you are always on you...even in the bathroom, no privacy what so ever. You agreed to it when you became the leader as you want your people to trust you. Only a select group of people are able to watch and see what is going on via those cameras. People you will never have contact with as you know not who they are or how to get ahold of them. This is of course to preserve military tactics. IE: cameras are not broadcast to the public, only those select people. You also have no idea where the leader of the other faction is, just like they have no idea where you are at. You are both as secure as secure can be from any type of spying.

Hopefully I've covered all the bases here. What is your choice?
 
Lets go to a galaxy far far away....Yeah, geeky and cheesy I know but hey, its going to get cheesier. :shrug: :mrgreen:

In this galaxy you have two factions that are warring against each other. The Light side and the Dark side. But don't let the names fool you. On both sides there are normal, every day people that essentially believe the exact same things and believe in doing what is Right and True. Neither side is religious. Both sides have equal rights for everyone. There is no racial discrimination. The only reason for the war is resources. Lets say....water. That particular galaxy is low on water. Which they of course need to survive. In between these two factions territories is a band of worlds that is chalk full of fresh water. Both sides have mutually agreed, before the war started, to not even come with in 50 light years of those planets until there is a victor in their war to see who gets the water. (for those that love semantics, they travel to different planets via directed wormhole technology which gets them from point A to point B of their choosing in a matter of seconds..but it only works inside their galaxy due to a highly radiation and magnetic bubble that wraps their entire galaxy and collapses worm holes that attempt to go beyond it)

If you were in charge of one of these factions how would you conduct your war?

Civilized war in which you spare innocent civilians as much as possible?

or

WAR! in which you exterminate anything that gets in your way?

Remember, the survival of your faction means winning the war in order to get that precious water. If you lose, your faction gets none of that water. The poll choices are your only options. There is no middle ground. No haggling. No diplomacy available as both factions refuse to come to the negotiation table, or even talk to each other for that matter as the war has started. In fact any attempt to contact or talk to the other side will get you summarily executed right on the spot. Cameras which you have no control over and cannot destroy as it would mean instant death for you are always on you...even in the bathroom, no privacy what so ever. You agreed to it when you became the leader as you want your people to trust you. Only a select group of people are able to watch and see what is going on via those cameras. People you will never have contact with as you know not who they are or how to get ahold of them. This is of course to preserve military tactics. IE: cameras are not broadcast to the public, only those select people. You also have no idea where the leader of the other faction is, just like they have no idea where you are at. You are both as secure as secure can be from any type of spying.

Hopefully I've covered all the bases here. What is your choice?

I think that we are nearing the point, where the obvious takes hold. If you are not prepared to do the things you need to do, you withdraw from battle, like we did in Vietnam. If you are not willing to do the things necessary to stabilize the peace, you leave the after-war like we did in Iraq.
 
In this galaxy you have two factions that are warring against each other. The Light side and the Dark side. But don't let the names fool you. On both sides there are normal, every day people that essentially believe the exact same things and believe in doing what is Right and True. Neither side is religious. Both sides have equal rights for everyone. There is no racial discrimination. The only reason for the war is resources. Lets say....water. That particular galaxy is low on water. Which they of course need to survive. In between these two factions territories is a band of worlds that is chalk full of fresh water. Both sides have mutually agreed, before the war started, to not even come with in 50 light years of those planets until there is a victor in their war to see who gets the water. (for those that love semantics, they travel to different planets via directed wormhole technology which gets them from point A to point B of their choosing in a matter of seconds..but it only works inside their galaxy due to a highly radiation and magnetic bubble that wraps their entire galaxy and collapses worm holes that attempt to go beyond it).

So, should either side win they will come after our water on our Earth also?

If you were in charge of one of these factions how would you conduct your war?

Civilized war in which you spare innocent civilians as much as possible?

or

WAR! in which you exterminate anything that gets in your way?

I say real War, let them destroy each other down to the last alien. Let no one be capable to come after our precious water here on Earth, no matter their advanced technology.

Which, begs the question: If they are so advanced in technology, how come they cannot create water? A matter of joining two kinds of molecules?

Cameras which you have no control over and cannot destroy as it would mean instant death for you are always on you...even in the bathroom, no privacy what so ever. You agreed to it when you became the leader as you want your people to trust you. Only a select group of people are able to watch and see what is going on via those cameras. People you will never have contact with as you know not who they are or how to get ahold of them. This is of course to preserve military tactics. IE: cameras are not broadcast to the public, only those select people.

The selected that have access to cameras seem to be on power. Their evaluation seems to matter. But since the cameras follow the leader all the way to the toilet, then activity in the toilet seems to be included in their evaluations.

So ranging from 0-10, how many drops of feces a true leader has to deliver down the drain in order to maintain true leadership in that planet so far away?
 
Let them fight it out being as uncivilized as possible, eventually one side will win.
 
I would conduct a civilized war, attempting to minimize harm to civilians, as long as the enemy did the same.

The whole point of the war is to gain resources to keep my civilians alive. So fighting in a manner that is likely to incite the enemy to target my civilians doesn't make much sense.
 
Lets go to a galaxy far far away....Yeah, geeky and cheesy I know but hey, its going to get cheesier. :shrug: :mrgreen:

In this galaxy you have two factions that are warring against each other. The Light side and the Dark side. But don't let the names fool you. On both sides there are normal, every day people that essentially believe the exact same things and believe in doing what is Right and True. Neither side is religious. Both sides have equal rights for everyone. There is no racial discrimination. The only reason for the war is resources. Lets say....water. That particular galaxy is low on water. Which they of course need to survive. In between these two factions territories is a band of worlds that is chalk full of fresh water. Both sides have mutually agreed, before the war started, to not even come with in 50 light years of those planets until there is a victor in their war to see who gets the water. (for those that love semantics, they travel to different planets via directed wormhole technology which gets them from point A to point B of their choosing in a matter of seconds..but it only works inside their galaxy due to a highly radiation and magnetic bubble that wraps their entire galaxy and collapses worm holes that attempt to go beyond it)

If you were in charge of one of these factions how would you conduct your war?

Civilized war in which you spare innocent civilians as much as possible?

or

WAR! in which you exterminate anything that gets in your way?

Remember, the survival of your faction means winning the war in order to get that precious water. If you lose, your faction gets none of that water. The poll choices are your only options. There is no middle ground. No haggling. No diplomacy available as both factions refuse to come to the negotiation table, or even talk to each other for that matter as the war has started. In fact any attempt to contact or talk to the other side will get you summarily executed right on the spot. Cameras which you have no control over and cannot destroy as it would mean instant death for you are always on you...even in the bathroom, no privacy what so ever. You agreed to it when you became the leader as you want your people to trust you. Only a select group of people are able to watch and see what is going on via those cameras. People you will never have contact with as you know not who they are or how to get ahold of them. This is of course to preserve military tactics. IE: cameras are not broadcast to the public, only those select people. You also have no idea where the leader of the other faction is, just like they have no idea where you are at. You are both as secure as secure can be from any type of spying.

Hopefully I've covered all the bases here. What is your choice?

What makes you think that either or both sides would have any concept of 'civilian' and 'military'? Would see any distinction? Would necessarily have individuals that would and would not participate in a war for survival?
 
shermanatlanta.gif


^-------- I take my war lessons from this guy ;)

But in all seriousness....

My general thought in combat, regardless of whether it's someone mugging me or a war, is you do whatever is necessary to win. Period.

That doesn't necessarily mean going all out without any regard for civilians; but it MIGHT.

If I believe conducting a more "civilized" War will work to my advantage because I have a significant belief that my opponent will "fight clean" as well, and that the potential pit falls of "fighting dirty" (loss of support at home, my own civilians being targetted, etc) outweigh the benefits, then I'll "fight clean".

On the flip side....

If I'm confident of my citizens resolve and believe I can end the conflict quickly which would minimize causalities on my end, OR I'm confident that the other guy won't fight dirty even if I do, OR I'm confident that they will fight dirty regardless of what I do, then by all means Sherman it up and burn that mother****er to the ground.
 
Lets go to a galaxy far far away....Yeah, geeky and cheesy I know but hey, its going to get cheesier. :shrug: :mrgreen:

In this galaxy you have two factions that are warring against each other. The Light side and the Dark side. But don't let the names fool you. On both sides there are normal, every day people that essentially believe the exact same things and believe in doing what is Right and True. Neither side is religious. Both sides have equal rights for everyone. There is no racial discrimination. The only reason for the war is resources. Lets say....water. That particular galaxy is low on water. Which they of course need to survive. In between these two factions territories is a band of worlds that is chalk full of fresh water. Both sides have mutually agreed, before the war started, to not even come with in 50 light years of those planets until there is a victor in their war to see who gets the water. (for those that love semantics, they travel to different planets via directed wormhole technology which gets them from point A to point B of their choosing in a matter of seconds..but it only works inside their galaxy due to a highly radiation and magnetic bubble that wraps their entire galaxy and collapses worm holes that attempt to go beyond it)

If you were in charge of one of these factions how would you conduct your war?

Civilized war in which you spare innocent civilians as much as possible?

or

WAR! in which you exterminate anything that gets in your way?

Remember, the survival of your faction means winning the war in order to get that precious water. If you lose, your faction gets none of that water. The poll choices are your only options. There is no middle ground. No haggling. No diplomacy available as both factions refuse to come to the negotiation table, or even talk to each other for that matter as the war has started. In fact any attempt to contact or talk to the other side will get you summarily executed right on the spot. Cameras which you have no control over and cannot destroy as it would mean instant death for you are always on you...even in the bathroom, no privacy what so ever. You agreed to it when you became the leader as you want your people to trust you. Only a select group of people are able to watch and see what is going on via those cameras. People you will never have contact with as you know not who they are or how to get ahold of them. This is of course to preserve military tactics. IE: cameras are not broadcast to the public, only those select people. You also have no idea where the leader of the other faction is, just like they have no idea where you are at. You are both as secure as secure can be from any type of spying.

Hopefully I've covered all the bases here. What is your choice?

Dispatch sharp diplomats that succeeded in finding a way that both shared the water, and neither perished.
 
The idea of a war is that you do whatever it takes to achieve a military/political goal.

If you need to ****ing butcher the entirety of the enemy then so be it.

This idea of a limited war is moronic.
 
You and those diplomats are now executed. Try again. ;)

Why me. Look Kal, I realize your excercise here is to legitimize the targeting of civilians.
 
The idea of a war is that you do whatever it takes to achieve a military/political goal.

If you need to ****ing butcher the entirety of the enemy then so be it.

This idea of a limited war is moronic.

Just use nukes.
 
Why me. Look Kal, I realize your excercise here is to legitimize the targeting of civilians.

Actually no, its not. Some in this thread have given perfectly good answers for both decisions. Not sure why you can't/won't even attempt to. :shrug:
 
Actually no, its not. Some in this thread have given perfectly good answers for both decisions. Not sure why you can't/won't even attempt to. :shrug:

That's not possible, targeting civilians has no legitimacy. Despite the US record to the contrary, the US acknowledges that, and is party to agreements that forbid it.
 
That's not possible, targeting civilians has no legitimacy. Despite the US record to the contrary, the US acknowledges that, and is party to agreements that forbid it.

We're not talking about the US. Or any other country. This is about civilized war vs WAR. Nothing more, nothing less.

Bold: I'll take that as you voting for civilized war.
 
We're not talking about the US. Or any other country. This is about civilized war vs WAR. Nothing more, nothing less.

Bold: I'll take that as you voting for civilized war.

No, I voted, in my post anyway, for an option that wasn't available in your hypothetical, yet is always an option.
 
No, I voted, in my post anyway, for an option that wasn't available in your hypothetical, yet is always an option.

No, its not always an option. If it was then there would be no wars in the world. Or at the very least, far less.
 
War is not a sport. Throughout history war has also involved civilians, in various ways. That doesn't mean that there can't be certain rules governing the conduct of warring parties (and there are) but these rules are limited and have only a limited impact.
 
No, its not always an option. If it was then there would be no wars in the world. Or at the very least, far less.

Diplomacy is to always an option, but sometimes when you want your gawd damn war bad enough (Iraq) diplomacy is dismissed. Funny that you might think that all wars happen because there was no political/diplomatic solution.
 
Diplomacy is to always an option, but sometimes when you want your gawd damn war bad enough (Iraq) diplomacy is dismissed. Funny that you might think that all wars happen because there was no political/diplomatic solution.

War is always an option for the antagonist (see: Iraq, Vietnam, etc.), but not always for the one being attacked.
 
shermanatlanta.gif


^-------- I take my war lessons from this guy ;)

But in all seriousness....

My general thought in combat, regardless of whether it's someone mugging me or a war, is you do whatever is necessary to win. Period.

That doesn't necessarily mean going all out without any regard for civilians; but it MIGHT.

If I believe conducting a more "civilized" War will work to my advantage because I have a significant belief that my opponent will "fight clean" as well, and that the potential pit falls of "fighting dirty" (loss of support at home, my own civilians being targetted, etc) outweigh the benefits, then I'll "fight clean".

On the flip side....

If I'm confident of my citizens resolve and believe I can end the conflict quickly which would minimize causalities on my end, OR I'm confident that the other guy won't fight dirty even if I do, OR I'm confident that they will fight dirty regardless of what I do, then by all means Sherman it up and burn that mother****er to the ground.



That, pretty much. :yt:


If we're postulating that there isn't enough water for both sides, and that only one side can win and control the water and survive, and the losing side is going to die of thirst anyway, then there seems little motivation not to go all out full destruction. If you win they all die anyway so what does it matter if you kill them now with bombs or later with thirst.
 
Diplomacy is to always an option, but sometimes when you want your gawd damn war bad enough (Iraq) diplomacy is dismissed. Funny that you might think that all wars happen because there was no political/diplomatic solution.

So if someone invades the US do you think that diplomacy will get all the bad guys out? Sometimes you just have to fight. Whether you like it or not.
 
Lets go to a galaxy far far away....Yeah, geeky and cheesy I know but hey, its going to get cheesier. :shrug: :mrgreen:

In this galaxy you have two factions that are warring against each other. The Light side and the Dark side. But don't let the names fool you. On both sides there are normal, every day people that essentially believe the exact same things and believe in doing what is Right and True. Neither side is religious. Both sides have equal rights for everyone. There is no racial discrimination. The only reason for the war is resources. Lets say....water. That particular galaxy is low on water. Which they of course need to survive. In between these two factions territories is a band of worlds that is chalk full of fresh water. Both sides have mutually agreed, before the war started, to not even come with in 50 light years of those planets until there is a victor in their war to see who gets the water. (for those that love semantics, they travel to different planets via directed wormhole technology which gets them from point A to point B of their choosing in a matter of seconds..but it only works inside their galaxy due to a highly radiation and magnetic bubble that wraps their entire galaxy and collapses worm holes that attempt to go beyond it)

If you were in charge of one of these factions how would you conduct your war?

Civilized war in which you spare innocent civilians as much as possible?

or

WAR! in which you exterminate anything that gets in your way?

Remember, the survival of your faction means winning the war in order to get that precious water. If you lose, your faction gets none of that water. The poll choices are your only options. There is no middle ground. No haggling. No diplomacy available as both factions refuse to come to the negotiation table, or even talk to each other for that matter as the war has started. In fact any attempt to contact or talk to the other side will get you summarily executed right on the spot. Cameras which you have no control over and cannot destroy as it would mean instant death for you are always on you...even in the bathroom, no privacy what so ever. You agreed to it when you became the leader as you want your people to trust you. Only a select group of people are able to watch and see what is going on via those cameras. People you will never have contact with as you know not who they are or how to get ahold of them. This is of course to preserve military tactics. IE: cameras are not broadcast to the public, only those select people. You also have no idea where the leader of the other faction is, just like they have no idea where you are at. You are both as secure as secure can be from any type of spying.

Hopefully I've covered all the bases here. What is your choice?

Why is war the only option here? What about diplomacy? Even your OP suggests that antebellum diplomacy has occurred, so why not extend it to the next logical step and avoid mass killings?

Also, you said there are multiple planets with water. Would the war occur between the two water-poor factions, or the water-poor factions vs. the civilizations with water?
 
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