Philotic Web

I read this book this week for the first time for a science fiction class. I was interested particularly in the aspect of the book that dealt with how humans dealt with the Buggers. The humans never tried to understand the underlying problem causing conflict between the Buggers and Humans. They never asked why the Buggers hadn’t bothered to continue their fight against the humans. I think this portrayal of humans to shoot first and understand later is very telling of the current United States military ideology. I was interested in other people’s views on this concept and comparison.

Actually, the buggers shot first. They shot first twice. They also shared no common means of communication with humans, and thus there was no way of knowing if they were planning to attack again or why they attacked in the first place.

I'm pretty sure that the Bugger's were the ones who made the first strike. In fact, the humans didn't even know about their existence until they attacked. Also, I don't think that even if the humans knew about the Buggers and the Buggers hadn't attacked, they probably wouldn't attack the Buggers unless they were perceived as a threat.

Also, "Current US Military Doctorine", I thought that the US government generally looks for excuses to declare war and always try to say the other side attacked first before they attack the offenders. Apparently Roosevelt waited for the Japanese to attack at Pearl Harbor as an excuse to enter WWII. Similarly Bush used 911 as a excuse to attack Afghanistan and Johnson claimed that US ships were under attack in Vietnam and so he started the Vietnam War. [/u]