As long as the people responsible for the funding are making money off the ‘wars on ______’ we will have them.

Unfortunately, in our current society, people still have the mistaken idea that war works.

What makes you think war isn’t the answer? Just imagine how bad drugs. poverty, crime and terror would be today with out all these wars.

Guess I have a different take. In the first place, the need to fund resistence to poverty and lawlessness will go on and on because these and other types of anti-social activities will continue; they are in our nature. And second, who says these “wars” (war is simply a motivational p.r. phrase) aren’t to varying degrees working?

I’m with @Pachyderm_In_The_Room and @Lightlyseared on this one.

The war on freedom began before the US even existed, which is why our ancestors came here, and it will always exist.

Look at the history of the human race. Do you REALLY think that is going to happen? I am not trying to be cynical, but I just don’t see it happening unless a very tragic event happens to the entire world. Even then, it’d only be temporary.

Is there a war on crime? I feel like sentencing reform acts are more on the “let’s love them until they get better” side these days.

@YARNLADY . . . so no war on swearing and cursing?

Probably until the economy picks up, taxes go down, stupid people die, and drugs become legal.

I do find the terminology counter-productive.

An equivocation on the word “War”.

They came close with “War on Terrorism” But they should have said “War on Islamist Terrorists” Huge screw up in word choice.

War is a specific thing-bloody conflict for territory, resources, retribution, and/or power.

War on Poverty? War on Drugs? Nothing but Government-speak.

@Blondesjon My way of changing the world is by example – OH NO! OUCH, THAT HURT and such or Leave the room, I don’t want to hear that word

I liked Bill Hicks’ take:

“I loved when Bush came out and said, ‘We are losing the war against drugs.’ You know what that implies? There’s a war being fought, and the people on drugs are winning it.”

War on Poverty – Johnson, 1964
War on Crime – Johnson, 1967 (Although more closely associated with Nixon administration and can be traced back to the policies of J. Edgar Hoover in the 1930’s)
War on Drugs – Nixon, 1971
War on Terror – Bush, 2001 (However, Reagan used the term “War on Terrorism” back in 1984

And, where do we stand after all these years of war?

Poverty, there are more families below the poverty level now than in 1964.
Crime, prison population is up and going higher, crime level have seen no significant decrease
Drugs, more drugs available now, more potent drugs available,
Terror, the most positive statements you can find about it is that we have had “mixed” results which, to my way of thinking is another way of saying we are just spending money and treading water.

For the most part, the use of the term “War on…” is an attempt to instill fear into the populace in order to make them more compliant and willing to endure harsher tactics to control society or, if you prefer, to “keep them safe”.

Finally, there is no end in sight for any of these “wars”.

@WestRiverrat & @Lightlyseared: I agree. All of these “wars” have become industries through greed and cynicism and because of this, they are ineffective. I cite the “war” that I am most acquainted with as a nurse. The “war” on drugs and homelessness. From my experience working homeless shelters—actual camps of 400 hundred or better—I can assure you that more than half of the homeless are either presently addicted to one substance or another, or are felons unable to get work due to earlier drug-related crime. This is compounded with poor education (many without a high school diplomas) and untreated underlying psychological problems which drove them to drugs in the first place. There is big money in drug rehab through federal, state and local government funding. A noble effort, but wasted in the hands of unscrupulous small rehab outfits, many proclaiming to be “faith based,” but utterly dependent on these funds, filling their beds, uninterested in graduating their clients, and at the same time charging these clients 25 to 33% of their income, if any (usually from off-the-books work or fast food jobs), for room, board and treatment. This expense at these wages ensure a long, dependent stay in the half-way house. I can’t help but think that this is calculated to be so. It certainly isn’t conducive to independence. A few of these half-way houses (too many!) ignore the fact that many of these clients go out on the street and continue to sell and abuse drugs during the day, because the rehabs and half-way houses are don’t want to lose them as an income stream. And the natural inclination of the drug-addicted client is to take full advantage of this while these badly trained, poorly disciplined staff turn a blind eye. I’ve heard one of these “preachers,’ the head of one of these outfits, justify this as the devil funding the word of God. What shear cynicism and bullshit.

On the other side, you have an increasingly privatized prison system, state contracts held by publicly held corporations which are paid by the occupied bed. It is in the interests of these corporations to lobby the State and Washington for “zero-tolerance” laws and mandatory sentencing (taking the discretion out of the presiding judge’s hands) in order to ensure those beds are filled by non-violent people who need REAL rehabilitation. Instead, more people are dumped back into society as felons who are, more often than not, unable to find work and therefore either end up on the street and on drugs, or in a tent in a homeless camp, supported by your tax dollars. Recidivism is rampant, hopelessness and victimization by those who are entrusted with their rehabilitation is widespread. I’ve heard these clients joke about their supposed Narc Anon and AA meetings, their ineffective, apathetic drug counselors and that it is all for show in order to get money. Trust that a substance abuser will not take the initiative to rectify this situation—they will gladly abide by it. As I’ve tend to these people’s physical wounds and infections while they live in the mud in tent cities, I’ve seen them time and again being referred off to these useless facilities. It all is extremely disheartening.

Genuine drug abuse rehabilitation in necessary in order to deal with this horrible problem. Assessing these people for work skills, education, substance abuse and dealing directly with these problems is the only solution to a national disaster that is eating us alive in costs of law enforcement, incarceration, emergency room visits, hospitalization, homelessness—not to mention the collateral human damage of violence toward women and children, growth of illicit industries and powerful outlaws, etc., etc., it goes on and on. We, as a punitive society have been going about this all wrong. We first incarcerate the abuser, then parole them into a netherworld with every incentive for recidivism and incarcerate them again. We have put rehabilitation efforts into ineffective, poorly supervised units. By doing all of this, we break of family units, we ensure a permanent underclass, and we don’t solve the root problem of individual substance abuse. Fie people who find this overwhelming and say that it can’t be done, trust me, we as a society have no choice but to work harder to solve this problem as it is arriving in formerly safe homes on a daily basis. There are so some answers to be found in outher countries, but American arrogance prevents us from taking these solutions home. We must always re-invent the wheel the American way. This is sheer folly.

If I weren’t so busy with my war on stupid people and my war on police, I would declare a war on wars on war (it would be an anti-hippy coalition)

When we begin the war on war will we realize that war is not the answer.

….until the zombie apocalypse, war is always the answer for that shit.