Re: WAR: appropriate first use (was: If we do get Afghanistan...)

From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Mon Nov 26 2001 - 16:08:43 MST


Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> > > So far, democratic nations have never declared war on each other (of
> > > course, plenty of nations *call* themselves democratic, but we are here
> > > talking about real democracies).
>
> No two countries with a "MacDonald's" franchise have ever gone to
> war against each other, democracies or otherwise.

Furthermore, both Japan and Germany were led by governments
democratically elected by parliamentary systems prior to WWII. Going
back in time, the British government was democratically elected in 1812
when it engaged in war with the democratically elected US government.
Going even further back in time, both Sparta and Athens had their own
democratic systems when they engaged in the Pelopponesian War, and Rome
was still a Republic when it took over Greece later on. On the other
side of the world, Pakistan and India, two democratic nations, have
fought at least three wars against each other when both were led by
elected leaders. Then, for instance, Israel, a parliamentary democracy,
has fought a war against the Jordanian kingdom, a constitutional
monarchy structured along British lines.



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