[Skybird]

The events and actions, the engagements and investments made, the victims and sacrifices made, the pulbic bleief and opinion, the claims, the ways the nation acted: it all said WAR.

And while the event of war, two wars, unfolded, you engage in a lawyers defintion on whether the war actually was a war or not.

Like the conservatives here tried to avoid admitting that torture is being carried out when claiming that Waterboarding where no torture but robust interrogation or new interrogation.

Sorry, I don'T buy neither the one, nor the other.

And you also are wrong on the last sentence you said. Youi said that if your leaders followed the (formal) rules and principles of your nation, then the "conflicts" would be looking different today. I assume you m ean a formal declaration of a state of war. - No, they wouldn'T. They would have been approached the same way like they were. And mind you, everybody was considering it to be a war already.

It's just labels, where the content of something is what defines it'S essence. Another confusion about labels: war on terror. Not only is this label idiotic becasue terror is no enemy, but a tool of the enemy and you hardly would say that WWII was not a war against the Nazis, but a war against airplanes, or tanks. One needs to look at what makes the enemy the enemy, what motivates the enemy to use terror. You see Islam, and that the enemy beolives inw hat Islam teaches him. The war in terror is mislabeled, because in truth it is a war against Islam. Islam is the enemy here, and terror is only its weapon.

Well, anyhow, Iraq and Afghanistan are lost and come at a high longtermed strategic price. Iran comes out with stronger influence, Pakistan comes out with stronger influence. Now one has to live with the mess. Whether there was a formal declaration of war or not, is unimportant. You Americans tend to be offende dover Pearl Harbour, becasue the attack took place before you got a declaration of war. This I admit always makes me giggle. Not because you suffered losses there, hell, no. But becasue it is so absurd. The point is the Japanese made a decision for war - and you missed it, could not imagine it sufficiently, waited for a aper letter in your mail and were caught off your guard.

When it comes to the ammount of killing and destruction that war causes, formalities and diplomatic proceedings to give it a nice touch are meaningless. The Japanese made a decision (that America could and probbaly has expected), and stroke. That'S what you do in war. A leaf of paper - is meaningless then. Especially if for its delivery you would pay in additional blood of thy own.

It is no duel between noble gentlemen. No dresscode. No toppers and tailcoats. No polite phrases and witty smalltalk. No champagne bwefore and after. I have told you my favourite Musashi story before, haven't I? If not, I tell you again. That's how to fight, duel and war. Everything else is nonsense.