What are some kinds of situations and opinions about when people think the US should ever go to war?

Answer 1

This is a question that doesn't require an answer; it requires volumes of books! One of the major failings in this country right now is that the vast majority in this country want AN answer, a simple, straight, completely comprehensible (to ALL people) answer. I remember years ago written on the bathroom in the Philosophy department at my university was the message, "People who seek simple answers to complex questions are warped; kill them!". We all viewed it with humor as tongue in cheek at the time; but, over the years, I've come to understand the truth behind the humor. People who seek simple answers to complex questions are warped, uneducated, woefully misguided, horrifically uneducated, narcissistic in the extreme, and simply ignorant. They are dangerous to themselves and to all of us; and they are currently ascendant in this nation. They are destroying what is left of this once great Republic in their sybaritism and self serving indolence.

You want a simple answer to your utterly simplistic question of when America should go to war? The answer is when it is necessary.

Answer 2

As with anything, this is a question which is heartily debated and there are views which tend to be more on the war-hawk side, like the Jingoists, and those who believe that war under any circumstances is a miscarriage of justice, like the Quakers. Where any person sits on this is often very personal and tied to notions of religion and patriotism.

Some issues over which at least some Americans believe war may be required are:

• Physical Invasion of the United States by the military of another nation
• Physical Invasion of a chief ally of the United States by the military of another nation
• Securing the lives of US citizens held by a nation hostile to the United States
• Securing resources necessary to industry in the United States held by a nation hostile to the United States
• Removing a Non-State Actor in a nation hostile to the United States
• Removing a Non-State Actor in a nation aligned with the US but incapable of removing the Non-State Actor
• Removing a Government of nation hostile to the United States or US regional interests
• Supporting one side of a civil war
• Secure Human Rights or Freedoms from nation which mistreats its citizens

Additionally, there are questions about when cyberwarfare should be used as a weapon of attack. However, since this is a new form of warfare and generally considered less dangerous than physical warfare, most people have not truly considered the conditions under which cyberwarfare should be permissible. The US currently has the NSA, but has dragged its feet concerning the formation of cyber-army like China and Russia currently possess.