phat writes:
Well, if we were shut off by China/India and the Third World, our standards of living would be threatened. Is that a justiable reason for war, in the event that diplomacy didnt work?
It seems very odd to bring up that kind of hypothesis, as in reality it is the US and other rich countries that are "shutting off" the third world. But it's a classic strategy to turn history upside down, and imagine that poor countries threaten the rich countries' standard of living when it is the opposite that is demonstrably the case.
A better question would be - is it okay for muslim terrorists to attack the US, since the US has "shut off" economic opportunities of muslim nations by, for example, supporting the obscenely rich and autocratic House of Saud? Is it okay for Hamas to attack Israel since Israel has quite literally "shut off" (using a physical wall, checkpoints, military activity, etc) the economic wellbeing of Palestinians? Does that constitute a just war? The question doesn't need to be considered on a hypothetical level! But it ain't the US who is threatened by being "shut off".
Mick