Would you fight for your country?

Same. But, @yankee Doodle you won't get drafted (plenty of reservist and guardsmen would go before you) and mainland won't be attacked (guns behind every blade of grass) so you have nothing to worry about.

username checks out

God I hope @tna responds to this lmao

My brother is a fighter pilot.

American foreign policy since World War II has been based on a simple premise: the United States will create a global security structure for its allies, enabling them to access resources and markets the world over without the need to protect themselves, those resources or those markets. In exchange, those allies would allow the Americans to fight the Cold War their way. In essence the Americans bribed up an alliance via the Bretton Woods system to fight the Soviets, and in doing so not only attracted the allegiance of traditional cultural allies, but also countries with which the Americans had fought long, bitter wars – up to and including the former Axis and the U.S. own former colonial master. The end result was the strongest military alliance in human history, and also history’s longest and greatest period of peace and prosperity because nearly every imperial power of the past was on the same side (with the notable and obvious exception of the Soviet Union).

This is why all foreign engagements since WWII have involved trying to kill people we don't know, who we harbor no enmity against, for reasons we -- as Americans -- don't understand. We were never doing it for ourselves, but for the world... for globalism, capitalism, free trade, cheap labor, comparative advantage, liberalism... our world doesn't exist without this underpinning. It gets a lot uglier.

America will do just fine. We have security, cheap fucking energy, and the most productive tract of land on Earth in the greater Midwest. It's the rest of the world you have to ask yourself if you care about their safety, and their prosperity. That's what we fight for. As Louis CK says, "You really have a choice: You can have candles and horses and be a little kinder to each other, or let someone very far away suffer immeasurably just so you can leave a mean comment on YouTube while you're taking a shit."

"Schreckstoff" No. Life is too short, precious, and rich to risk it trying to kill people I don't know, who I harbor no personal enmity against, for reasons I don't fully understand. War shaves something off your soul and if you're not 100% convinced of the cause and it's dignity it's a terribly steep price to pay.

That being said, I'm thankful others don't share my views as I recognize it's the reason I'm allowed to hold them.

Have you always known that you have a mangina?

Under this scenario, wouldn't you have some personal enmity against a nation who launched a nuclear strike on the U.S and the soldiers defending that nation?

Which foot?

You're right that "false flags" have happened a lot in the past, even in the U.S. (see: Spanish-American War). In the case of North Korea, however, they actually are the boogeyman, so-to-speak. It's literally one of the most evil regimes in human history.

So, just to be clear - as an American, you have no resentment for a dictator who owns sex slaves, has committed fratricide, straps people to anti-aircraft guns and executes them brutally, in front of bystanders, all for the "crimes" of doing things that would be considered free expression in this country?

You have no resentment for the military and scientific bureaucracy that he sits on top of, that enables and congratulates his savagery, and which is currently building ICBMs for him? ICBMs that he intends to use on us or our allies, should he decide that we aren't giving him the respect that a god deserves?

Yeah, of course you don't have resentment for one of the millions of average, starving North Koreans. Neither do I. I'm sure the average American didn't have resentment for the average German prior to WWII, who lived in a desperate state due to his economy being destroyed thanks to the treaty of Versailles.

The point is not whether you resent the average "others" who will be fighting on the other side of a hypothetical war - if you have a modicum of humanity, of course you dont. The point is that sometimes, decent people live under destructive, dangerous regimes. Unfortunately, those regimes sometimes reach a point where no amount of nebulous goodwill towards their starving citizens is enough to avert global consequences, and hence, we go to war.

It always surprises me how much cognitive dissonance finds a home on WSO. People saying they want to be investment bankers, while in the same breath blurting out some drivel about the military industrial complex. Give me a break.