Will there ever be another major war between European powers again?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
"Great Britain and Iceland had the 'Cod Wars' in the 1970s."

Tell me more.

http://www.britains-smallwars.com/RRGP/CodWar.htm

Hard to believe a dispute over cod, but there you are- it's the cod's honest truth.

Singapore is enlarging itself by dredging operations off Indonesia, if I recall, resulting in what some Indonesian villagers and fishermen call an environmental catastrophe, as fishing grounds are polluted and coastal villages flooded, and fresh water supplies polluted:

http://www.singapore-window.org/sw02/020906au.htm

[OzzyKP]

Facinating.

If fishing rights can lead to stuff like this between two Cold War allies, then anything could happen now. During the Cold War everyone was supposedly focused and united around one goal of containing the USSR.

Now, without that specter, anything could happen.

Maybe Ireland and the UK will go at it.
Or perhaps photos of Berlisconi in a compromising position with Schroeder's wife are discovered and all hell breaks loose.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by PLATO
Yes, but those were nationalistic wars. Europe seems to have moved beyond that type of nationalism. Also, wasn't the Ruhr a major resource area under contention?

It's only a matter of time before Europe starts hating the French again.

[OzzyKP]

I hear there is still some long standing animosity between Hungary and Romania. Maybe that'll flare up.

Or maybe the Greeks will royally f up the Olympics this year, and everyone will just pile one.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Park Avenue
Muslims are sneaking into our countries, and still supporting terrorism. That's why they are not true (western/civilised) Europeans.

you'd have to not be welcoming them with open arms for them to be sneaking in.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Dissident


was that in response to my 9/11 remark?

we can make another thread about it if you want. But I've discussed this in a thread in 2003. or was that 2002?

They have a right to defend their culture against America.

Then by that logic we have a right to glass them.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by axi
The world's first (and the only memorable) direct democracy has plunged all by itself into a war that lasted 30 years and led the state in question from superpower status to end up under a gruesome dictatorship.

Athens, 5th century B.C., The Peloponesian War

So do not be so confident about democratic or liberal regimes.

Liberal democracy. Liberal. Not in the sense of "Left-wing", but in the sense of a free society, as well as the absense of the kind of nationalism seen in the first half of the last century and before (yes, I know that nationalism in some forms still exists in the US and Europe, but it's of a different character).

And even democratic Athens had an aristocracy.

[Kuciwalker]

I disagree with EST that the Great War was the fault of a few individuals. That may have been the proximate cause, but the real reason is because their societies were of a certain character.

The only way I can see a European war happening would be one to preserve the European Union. It seems inevitable that under any federal system, the question of sovereignty will come up and must be decided by force of arms.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Dissident
hell, I think September 11 was justified. It doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to believe most muslims beleive the same way I do.

You are insane. Killing anyone is never justified.

[Kuciwalker]

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Whoha


I think America went to war with both france and England in the 1800s, most of the action was just ship skirmishes though, excepting the war of 1812.

a democratic peace theorist would deny, I think, that England before the first Reform law was even close to a democracy. Parliamentary rule != democracy, if parliament isnt democratically elected.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by molly bloom

http://www.britains-smallwars.com/RRGP/CodWar.htm

Hard to believe a dispute over cod, but there you are- it's the cod's honest truth.

a "war" fought entirely by ramming, with no one killed. If all wars were "fought" like that, id be VERY HAPPY.

[KrazyHorse]

Hell, we impound Euro fishing vessels all the time. They just don't have the balls to send their navies after us.

[Ramo]

I may be wrong, but I believe no 2 democratic nations have ever gone to war (and I can't think of any at the moment),

Not really true. Off the top of my head, the Brits bombed the Finns during WWII, there's Croatia vs. Yugoslavia in '91, the India-Pakistan war after independence, and the recent one in '99 (just prior to the Musharraf coup). Then there's, for instance, the Boer War and the ACW (as well as ancient Greek wars) but the franchise was limited in these cases. And arguably the Spanish-American War counted, as does WWI. And then there are various wars against natives.

[Kuciwalker]

Spain was a monarchy, Ramo...