War, what is it good for

February 14, 2002 4:46 AM

War, what is it good for absolutely nothing?. Poverty, political, social and economic inequalities result in war. So whats new.
posted by johnnyboy (8 comments total)

A rather cerebral article, but it makes its point. Perhaps the best form of defence is to extent the hand of frienship, rather than pump pounds as well as dollars into our armed forces.
posted by johnnyboy at 4:49 AM on February 14, 2002

What is war good for? Self defense, primarily. Also saving the world from Nazis. Destroying empire-grabbing communists. You know, stuff like that.
posted by davidmsc at 4:53 AM on February 14, 2002

War is extremely good at killing people.
posted by revbrian at 5:35 AM on February 14, 2002

ah, but who my friend shall save us from ourselves.
posted by johnnyboy at 5:48 AM on February 14, 2002

What davidmsc has said.
Another thing, this article doesn't really adress war, it talks about 'armed conflicts' in "world's 10 poorest countries"

Perhaps the best form of defence is to extent the hand of frienship, rather than pump pounds as well as dollars into our armed forces.

I guess that is sort of the point the article makes. Not sure. But in any case I can see a lot of stuff wrong with this. Foreign countries hardly ask or want U.S.'s helping hand of friendship. In most places it's quiet the opposite, and then who would you give your friendship (money) to? Today's warlord, but a year from now, will he still be around? Will the friendship be distributed to the people properly? Probably not.

In a lot of cases the most useful kind of friendship the U.S. can provide is military support, then again, most of the world feels the U.S. is too arrogant and sticks it's nose in other people's business too much. Like in Afghanistan.
posted by tiaka at 6:21 AM on February 14, 2002

or then again maybe not...
posted by johnnyboy at 6:40 AM on February 14, 2002

you have oil. I want it. you have a religion that I don't like. You have a piece of land that belongs to me and I want it. I don't like your govt because it doesn't do what I want it to do and I will help change it. My country deserves more of a,b,c and I will fight to get it. You have slavery and we don't like it anymore and so we will fight you to get rid of it. You have the right to leave our nation but I have the need to fight you to keep you with us. You rule our country and don't live here so I will war against you to make our own country. You invaded our country and lost and have not yet signed a peace accord so we will toss stuff back and forth at each other till there is a peace treaty. We fight people like you because you have a type of government we think is bad and believe you are trying to spread it all over the globe so we will war with you.
and, if that is not sufficient: we have some old grievances and we will war with you to settle them, though I can not recall how they started.
posted by Postroad at 6:49 AM on February 14, 2002

it got us out of the great depression..
posted by alex3005 at 5:59 PM on February 14, 2002