War

What is war? War is the wholesale department of what at the retail level we call crime. It is the use of force against persons or or their property, on a large scale. Unlike crime, which involves the theft of property or harm to a few individuals by a few individuals, war is the intentional destruction of as much property as possible and the intentional killing of as many people as possible carried out by large organizations of people whose sole purpose and business is bloodshed and violence. These organizations are called the military.

Military organizations are very specialized, according to where they intend to do their killing and destruction, or where they intend to do it from, for example, armies do their killing and destruction on land, navies do their killing and destruction on and from the seas, and air forces do their killing and destruction in and from the air.

Also, unlike crime, which is carried out by individuals against other individuals, wars are carried out by governments against other governments, which actually means, against the people who live in the countries ruled by those governments. While wars are described as between countries, (or sections within countries), where there are no governments (or gangs of people who intend to be the government), there are no wars.

Those who love and study war distinguish between offensive war and defensive war, categorizing offensive war as bad, and defensive war as good. This idea supposes offensive “aggressors” cause war by attacking a country that is otherwise at peace. The attacked country is therefore forced to fight to defend itself against aggression.

No actual war in history has ever been quite like this, and most modern wars are nothing like this at all. In most modern wars, many countries are involved with only minor or no direct threat against themselves, and the objectives of the wars, even when they are “won” are never achieved. However, lots of death and destruction are achieved.

Wars to end things are never successful, any more than government programs to end things, like poverty, or crime, or addiction, or any other noble cause, are ever successful. Wars to end wars (to bring peace to the world) are obviously absurd, but other “noble” wars, like those to end communism, or aggression, or terrorism, cannot possibly succeed, unless they succeed in totally or at least nearly eliminating the human race.

Is war necessary? If a country wants to live in peace with its neighbors, but is attacked, what is it to do? Isn’t it necessary to fight to defend one’s country? Actually, countries do not attack one another. Governments do. A country without a government, however, is nearly inconceivable, and so long as countries have governments, they will probably attack one another.

All governments ultimately become oppressive as they grow, become more powerful and more expensive. Eventually, they become so expensive, and have usually caused so much damage to the economy of their own country, to survive, they must expand, which means, beyond their present geographic boundaries.

Like government, therefore, war is not necessary, but it is inevitable. (See Government, Politics, and commentary) Also, like government, the individual is not bound to be a partaker in government’s wars. Governments want you to think you owe them allegiance, even your life, as though whatever good you have enjoyed in this life, they have provided. But governments produce and provide nothing, they can only consume and take. Anything a government supposedly, “provides,” it first took from someone else.

If governments get themselves involved in wars, there is no reason you have to go along with that insanity. This much you can be sure of. There is no country (with one possible exception) that will not be involved in a war or wars during your lifetime and no country will ever benefit from a war.

However, individuals sometimes benefit from wars, and there is nothing wrong with taking advantage of the stubborn stupidity of others, particularly, governments and those who support (and are supported by) them. Some actually enjoy war itself. There are many aspects of war which are both exciting and adventurous. Of course it is dangerous, but what isn’t? War is a great evil, but good men often reach their greatest achievements in the face of the greatest evil.

Since war is an inevitable aspect of this world, if some enjoy being part of it, and are willing to accept the risk, and deem the rewards sufficient, it is difficult to find a reason why they should not participate. One should never encourage war, but sometimes governments contrive conditions where it will occur no matter what anyone does. Using what actually exists, even a war, is both objective and moral.

In general, however, the rule with regard to all evil is still, “don’t be there when it happens.” One thing is certain, voluntarily participating in any collective activity doomed to failure by its very nature is folly, and applies equally to those who join war efforts and those who join war protests.

Grandma always said, “there will be no end of war ‘til all the young men refuse to fight.” The young of every generation of Grandma’s family all volunteered for the service and, if there was a war, fought in it. Grandma was right, though, and her sons were all stupid.

So, there will always be war, because all young men are stupid and brash. It might help if we stopped calling something that depends on the stupidity of a whole class of people noble, brave, and good, and stopped calling the stupid dead, heroes.

Of course all that fight are not volunteers. Some are forced to fight, (drafted=enslaved), and when these die, they are neither stupid or heroes, they are just victims of government policy. There is not much that is more disgusting than to hear some fool say they are proud of those who died when what they ought be saying is they are ashamed they supported the kind of policies that killed those poor innocents.