I don't support any kind of war basicly because the underlying problems that cause them can be solved with intelligent strategies that don't involve violence. If the money that is used for war budgets was used instead in other more important things like solving hunger and creating sustainable technologies, then the world would be quite a better place to live. War is just like an E-Penis war on steroids.

That's actually not true.

Wars are actually quite possible the biggest cause of innovation.

Without wars we wouldn't have....

Well... the Internet or Computers to start with.

Or Radio.

Or Cellphones or any other Sattelite based technology.

Like GPS.

Or Jet planes. (For better planes.)

Not that i'm for wars... but your statement is blatantly incorrect when you consider just all the technology created for war that at the time people didn't even see civilian uses for.

Practically all of the most useful technology we have today was first created by the military specifically for military means because the civilian benefits were seen as limited.

Heck, things like that Star Wars Defense system thing they're working on my later be used for enviromental engineering.

To be honest I don't blame Bush for the faulty intelligence. The intelligence that was put to him by the CIA was that there were WMDs. There are two options for this.

1) The CIA wasn't sure about the intelligence but acted as if it was for essentially it's own purposes (a bit conspiracy-ish really but the CIA is a pretty shady organisation, lets face it)

2) The CIA really cocked up in a big way (wouldn't be the first time for this).

I lean towards the second one simply because it's less complicated.

I'm sorry, but you are assuming that the ONLY way in which these technologies could be developed is war, which is untrue. These were just the circumstances of history mainly because of the drive that war imposes in those involved in them to develop technologies that makes them more likely to win. That doesn't mean that it would be impossible to develop such technologies in other circumstances.

But let's assume you are correct, which is the case in present time at least. This doesn't mean that we should follow that line of thought in the future. That would essentially be too dangerous to handle. In this day and age there's no reason to keep on wasting so much money on war budgets ( I'm not saying that it should be eliminated, which would be ridiculous). My point is that if you cut down that budget and use the money saved to invest in other more important problems (such as those stated in the Millennium Development Goals), the world would surely be a better place.

There is a tone of sadomasochism in the video you posted, I honestly hope your intillect is above the presented knee-jerking rhetoric pushed on by it.

If it isn't then you've still yet to show me how the video could be related to the topic of Iraq. If your assuming American Imperialism then you would have to tell me which country America has annexed illegally - the only one I could think of was the spanish-american war... maybe the native Americans as well. Well after the Geneva convention I can't even come up with a single act of imperialism. Unless the author is confusing trilateral foriegn policy.

I mean I couldn't even call for Hawaii because the US position shifted with the presidency. Which up until 93 hadn't decided if their was some wrong doing on the US's part.

Oh well ^_^

Oh right, so I noticed the video calls for America to be an evil and racist state but starts off saying that his message is not at the American people; I mean seriously? Does no one else see the irony in the method of sending the message as well?

No he's saying that history will show that without the demand there would be no need for the innovation and that war has a way of sparking demand.

I understand that, but it doesn't mean that war is the ONLY way in which these technological advances can happen.

NO

Fair enough but you will still have to conced to history having already happened one way and not the way your wishing it were. War will always spark ingenuity.

To clear the table a little: I don't believe anyone is saying these things would never have come about without war, that is claiming knowledge no human could have, but likewise you cannot say that these things would have come about without war because again that is presuming a knowledge that no human could have.

Neither argument is more right than the other.

Only way?  No.

Quickest way however.... yes.

These inventions literally had no civilian applications... so how much longer some of this stuff would of taken?  Who knows?  The civilian applications of this stuff weren't apparent until well after we had them.

Would the world today be a better place without the internet?  Hard to say really... though it's really hard to say it would be... espiecally in light of how the internet has allowed people to band against their dictatorships.

I'd call it very unlikely if your talking about funneling the money spent on war to the MDG.  I mean, the vast majority don't require any money at all, and simply just policy change... I'm not even sure where you'd put extra money into them.

I mean,

A) the poverty and hunger goals are pretty much 80-90% policy issues, and problems with despotic rulers... so you aren't going to solve this one without.... well... a lot of wars.  I don't see how money fixes this.

B) Universal Education.  Again, largely policy issues... which are largely by dictators.  Don't see how more money fixes this.

C) Gender Equality.  Policy and societal issues.  It doesn't actually take much money to fight sexism.

Well, i can keep going, but the point is pretty clear no matter how much money you throw at the problem... stuff isn't going to change because of despots.

The only one that might work is Renewable energy I suppose, but single minded research gets diminishing returns....

Think of it this way... the first 10 people getting grants for studying Solar Energy are probably the 10 best solar specialists.

That's why military research works so well... it basically spends on every single thing that may give it an advantage, and rarely do they have too many people studying the same thing.