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A comment on My new favorite book of all time. Parent comment

Re:My new favorite book of all time by jmilloy on Monday January 29, 2018 @12:08PM (#16258793)
Yeah. It seems to me that it's not so much that "war is illegal" as "certain countries have declared a monopoly on force and have the means to enforce it." Or at least try to. That's probably a good thing, but it seems useful to me to approach it with a more accurate perspective.
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Re:My new favorite book of all time by dfmooreqqq on Monday January 29, 2018 @12:11PM (#16258831)
"It seems to me that it's not so much that war "is illegal" as "certain countries have declared a monopoly on force and have the means to enforce it.""

In some lines of thought, that's the definition of illegal...

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Re:My new favorite book of all time by AnimalMuppet on Monday January 29, 2018 @12:20PM (#16258921)
OK, but even by that definition, it's not the UN that has made it illegal. The UN is pretty toothless.

I mean, yes, they have peacekeeping forces. Those forces are not keeping the peace by force. In fact, there have been times when they have stood aside while one side violated the peace, because the UN force's rules of engagement didn't allow them to use force to prevent one side from starting the war back up.

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Re:My new favorite book of all time by simonh on Monday January 29, 2018 @01:56PM (#16259730)
It can be pretty toothless, but the mere fact that it exists as a platform for discussion, expression if views and the firmation if consensus is a huge improvement compared to nothing. I think the experience nations get of working together on issues is also pretty valuable.
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Re:My new favorite book of all time by jessriedel on Monday January 29, 2018 @04:25PM (#16260743)
AnimalMuppet isn't making a general criticism of the UN, he's arguing that the UN isn't responsible for war being illegal under dfmooreqqq's operational definition.
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Re:My new favorite book of all time by mcguire on Monday January 29, 2018 @01:08PM (#16259339)
The "Pax Americana".

That term isn't right, since there are a few other countries involved, but it brings to mind the right associations.

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Re:My new favorite book of all time by NoGravitas on Monday January 29, 2018 @02:07PM (#16259827)
If you interpret "the UN" in this context as "the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council", it's pretty much the same thing as you're saying.
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Re:My new favorite book of all time by sooheon on Monday January 29, 2018 @02:14PM (#16259889)
Yes, but being explicit and acknowledging the concentration of power is better than saying pithily "war is illegal", as if it were shoplifting or loitering.
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