General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Conscientious Objection...do you approve or not? and when? [View all]Selatius
(20,441 posts)1. Necessary killing, typically to ensure self-preservation
2. Unnecessary killing, killing for gratuitous reasons or reasons unrelated to self-preservation at all
World War Two came closer than any war in American history in the last 100 years to what I would define as a necessary war. Viet Nam and the Iraq War are two examples that don't even come close to being necessary; it was an absolute waste of human life for no reason except profits and the want to exercise power.
The folks that started those two wars knew the price of everything but the value of nothing. Like Viet Nam, it was all fine and dandy, the business of war, so long as their sons and daughters weren't going to show up on the wrong side of their list of profits and losses.