# Whose war is it anyway? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 21, 2001, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946 "2001-09-21T02:47:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/1 "2001-09-21T02:47:58Z")
George II says that “We will direct every resource at our command, every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence and every necessary weapon of war, to the disruption and defeat of the global terror network.” He also says that the rest of the world are either for him or again’ him and with the terrorists. Listen, George. You want us in on this war of yours? Then let’s lay down one rule. We’re going after all terrorists, not just those ones that are (a) brown (b) foreign and © a threat to targets and civilians resident in the 50 states of the union. You want us in the rest of the world to be more careful with the movement of peoples? Then you be more careful who you sell arms to, and don’t get in the way of global efforts to stamp out illicit arms trading. You want us to keep Islamic fundies from laundering their money in Toronto or London? Then stamp out the domestiic American fundraising and logistical networks for ETA and both sides in the Northern Ireland problem. You want a multilateral war on terrorism? Then stop acting unilaterally and making demands of your friends, neighbours, and potential coalition partners. The rest of the free world, much of which, sadly, has already had long-standing experiences with homeland terrorist attacks, will stand with you. But you have to stand with the rest of us. The corollary of “All for one” is “One for all.” Are you for us, or against us? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/2 "2001-09-21T03:34:22Z")
Better watch out, Troublemaker, ‘cause you snowball-throwin’ Labrador Separatists are next. 😃 [http://www.fotw.ca/flags/ca-nf-lb.html](http://www.fotw.ca/flags/ca-nf-lb.html) Sucky flag. The white ought to be in the middle for better color contrast with the blue and the green. [_gets smacked in the face with a wet slushy snowball_] **OW**! Hey, Dubya! Over here with the _Carl Vinson_! We’ll bomb them Labradorians back into the Stone Age… Oh, wait, they already ARE in the Stone Age… Never mind. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/3 "2001-09-21T14:38:43Z")
I’m not trying to stir up trouble… I just wish that any good that comes out of the past week would include a full frontal assault (not just militarily either) on all terrorism. Now’s as good a time as any. But as a reality check for the US, it’s going to be hard to maintain an international anti-terrorism effort that has, as its predominant aim, combatting anti-American terrorism, without consideration for the many other countries that face the same problem. We should all be in this together. (PS Vive le Labrador libre !) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/4 "2001-09-21T14:50:48Z")
Labrador: What if they created a country and nobody noticed? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/5 "2001-09-21T15:17:47Z")
There’s actually a place called Labrador? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/6 "2001-09-21T15:25:21Z")
Yeah. They named it after the dogs. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/7 "2001-09-21T15:27:20Z")
I should be more careful. The only pit thread ever aimed at me by name was started by an angry Canadian, as if that weren’t an oxymoron. ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/8 "2001-09-24T12:06:10Z")
Shoot. I thought this was going to be a parody of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” … [sub]Your prize is to fight the war in a style of my choosing. I’d like you to fight the war in the style of…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/9 "2001-09-24T17:52:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Weird\_AL\_Einstein \* > **Shoot. I thought this was going to be a parody of "Whose Line is it Anyway?"** [“Whose Line Is It Anyway” theme music] Good evening and welcome to “Whose War Is It Anyway?” starring: “Hey, it wasn’t me.” - Osama bin Laden “Don’t put your troops in our country.” - "The Pakistani Muslem Fundamentalists “We have no idea where he is.” - The Taliban Militia and “We HAVE the proof to nail him.” - The US Justice Department. I’m your host, George W. Bush. Let’s go kick some ass. [/“Whose Line Is It Anyway” theme music] 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/10 "2001-09-25T01:12:23Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by labradorian \* > \*\* > George II says . . ._\* Wouldn’t that be George III? Washington, then Bush the elder, and now him. ---
**Author:** ![Monster104](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Monster104](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monster104)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/11 "2001-09-25T01:21:40Z")
Wait wait…so you’re complaining that now that the US is trying to do something against international terrorism, that there should be conditions imposed on the US to spearhead this effort? Or am I missing it? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/12 "2001-09-25T01:33:32Z")
To quote P.J. O’Rourke (“Among the Euro-Weenies”, _Holidays in Hell_, written back in April and May of 1986, after the U.S. raids on Libya in retaliation for the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque): > [@](#): > > I don’t mean to pick on [general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament] Meg Beresford, really. She is obviously a decent person and committed as all get-out to international niceness. But she herself said, musing on the booze-addled States-side Micks who give the IRA guns and money, “If the U.S. feels morally justified in bombing Libya, Britain should fell justified in bombing the U.S.” > > “Damn right,” I said. “Any dumb potato-head who’s dragged those rotten ancestral quarrels to his new home in America deserves no better than to get a British laser bomb targeted on his south Boston bar.” (That is, assuming the British _have_ laser bombs, and assuming the British have the capability to launch a trans-Atlantic air strike without U.S. aid. Which they don’t.) ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/13 "2001-09-25T01:58:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monster104 \* > \*\*Wait wait…so you’re complaining that now that the US is trying to do something against international terrorism, that there should be conditions imposed on the US to spearhead this effort? > > Or am I missing it? \*\* The US is getting a lot of support from countries too numerous to mention. The level of support varies of course, but the coalition is looking good. Certainly, one of your major allies is the UK, although this comment does not denigrate any contributions made by Canada. Let us theorise here. After many years of concentrated effort on diplomatic, military, economic and other fronts, the threat of international terrorism recedes to a point where it is considered to be contained, if not defeated. Any danger to the US is minimal, although vigilance remains the watchword. I do not wish to discuss the Northern Ireland issue here, except in terms of what the US is going to do about the fund raising for the IRA which takes place in the US, either now, or when the international terrorist threat is deemed to be contained, or at some point in between. Quite obviously the IRA poses no threat to the US, so is the US going to be interested at any time in the future in terminating these fund raising activities, or are the people who are instrumental in effecting donations to the IRA untouchable for one reason or another. Finally I do not understand why **labradorian** is getting so much heat in respect of his OP. His language may be a touch florid but his point is a fair one. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/14 "2001-09-25T02:00:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > _Originally posted by labradorian \* > > \*\* > > George II says . . ._\* > > Wouldn’t that be George III? Washington, then Bush the elder, and now him. \*\* George III? Doesn’t that mean you’re due for a revolution? ---
**Author:** ![Monster104](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Monster104](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monster104)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/15 "2001-09-25T02:02:25Z")
Ah, I think I see. But if I’m not mistaken, the US doesn’t collect donations for the IRA. Private groups do, and I believe that is perfectly legal. Also, isn’t the IRA trying for peace now? What would the donations go for? ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/16 "2001-09-25T02:11:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Monster104 > But if I’m not mistaken, the US doesn’t collect donations for the IRA. Private groups do, and I believe that is perfectly legal. I think you’ve just made one of \*\* labradorian\*\* points, Mr Monster. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/17 "2001-09-25T03:16:09Z")
Incidentally, it’s my war. All mine. ---
**Author:** ![Rogue1stclass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rogue1stclass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rogue1stclass)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/18 "2001-09-25T03:23:24Z")
excuse this minor hijack/rant… But…Why in the HELL would anyone, much less Americans, give money to the IRA? I mean, I could MAYBE understand it back in the day when they were an actual army trying to fight a revolution, but those days are LONG over…Now they are terrorists, tried and true…and terrorism, aside from being morally reprehensible, is complete ineffective as a political tool…All it does is sure up the opposition and polarizes the moderates (usually against the terrorist)…You can’t strong-arm a Nation, especially not a strong one like the US or the UK…These nations spent 50 years staring down enough nuclear firepower to kill EVERYONE ON EARTH and didn’t flinch…you think your little semtek bomb is going to do something? Other than kill a few people and piss a whole lot off? Terrorism is a stupid ploy of a desperate cause, and sending money after it isn’t helping the cause, its just killing people… Okay, I feel better…now back to your regularly scheduled thread… ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/19 "2001-09-25T12:10:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monster104 \* > **Ah, I think I see. But if I’m not mistaken, the US doesn’t collect donations for the IRA. Private groups do, and I believe that is perfectly legal.** Monster, that’s the whole point. > [@](#): > > _[over at CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/24/inv.investigation.terrorism/index.html)_ > President Bush signed an executive order Monday aimed at cutting the financial lifeblood of Osama bin Laden and organizations linked to his alleged terrorist network. > > The order froze the U.S. assets of 27 groups, corporations and individuals identified as supporters of terrorism. > > “They include terrorist organizations, individual terrorist leaders, a corporation that serves as a front for terrorism and several nonprofit organizations,” Bush said. > > U.S. banks that have assets of the targeted groups and people must freeze their accounts, Bush said. American citizens also are prohibited from doing business with them, he said. **Bush also asked overseas banks and financial institution to freeze terrorists’ funds** Emphasis mine. Hence the OP. So, shouldn’t the USA clamp down on groups who collect funds in the US for the IRA, ETA and so on? ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946/20 "2001-09-25T12:21:40Z")
I found myself wondering where this “war on terrorism and those who _harbour_ terrorism” left the exponents of Italian terrorism (assuming the murder of judges, police, etc falls into George’s definition), the Mafia ? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-war-is-it-anyway/82946.md?page=2)