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bloppelast Saturday at 6:18 PM4 repliesview on HN

This is the attitude that permits world wars. In the aftermath of WW2, a lot of people genuinely believed in the power of international law to prevent WW3. Now, it seems like a ton of people think that's just BS, and the fact that so many people think that is what makes it BS. If a strong majority of people actually believed in international law, it would be "real".

I guess sometimes you just need WW3.


Replies

iamflimflam1last Saturday at 6:50 PM

"It's in your nature to destroy yourselves"

The people who actually experienced (either directly fighting in, or living through it) have already died or are rapidly dying out.

We have no concept of just how horrifying a world war would be.

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JumpinJack_Cashlast Sunday at 4:44 PM

> > If a strong majority of people actually believed in international law, it would be "real".

International law has always been BS, what works is fear of retribution by the offended party or retribution from the observers thinking they might be next and getting together to enact preventive measures

valcron1000last Saturday at 9:08 PM

If international law had any effect people would believe in it. You're mixing cause/effect. This situation has been going on for years and the lack of response by international organizations makes people lose all confidence in them.

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mytailorisrichlast Saturday at 6:28 PM

It is not an attitude. It is a statement of fact.

"International law" are voluntary agreements but countries remain sovereign. The only way to force something is to have bigger guns and/or more economic power than the other countries and, as it happens, the US are #1 on both.

Edit: The best protection we have against WWIII is not "international law", it's that the big guys can instantly nuke each others.

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