confucius

Our lives, the human way of life, has been built on a foundation of war.
History has been one conflict and then another, one war after the other, and how each one changed the way the maps were drawn.

We, the people of Earth, are now more connected than ever before. When will the need to conquer subside?

The answer is never. Competition is one of the great parts of life. Though, when given the right tools, competition can lead great men to do terrible things.

Military is the tool I speak of. Military can be defined in many ways, but every person understands the single main reason for the existance of military: To defend ones homeland from would-be enemies.

The would-be enemies... Other militarized nations.
Seems slightly arbritrary to this civilian.....

__________________
To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage and principle.

Drake Equation

War has also done more than just redraw maps it has unified people through the spread of culture and ideas (and disease). It has inspired the development of new technologies which were then adapted to non-military use. War has changed the way people think (philosophically and ideologically) and it has--on more than one occasion-- completely revolutionized the role of government. Wars have ushered in completely new eras of human history (or ushered old ones out, depending on how you look at it).

Essentially a military is nothing more than an extension of the political power, economic productivity and intellectual characteristics of a society. A nation ceases to have a military when those these three things.

Svante

.
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace -

John Lennon
.

confucius

You couldn't be more correct. Infact, everything you said is almost an understatement of the good that has come from war. So many inventions, so many ideas, discovered or created in a time of need.

I'm sure the pattern will continue. Wars will be fought; young men and women will die for the defense or advancement of their peoples; good will come. Is it not safe to say, though, that it would be more beneficial to future advancements of the human race if two men could sit and speak, discuss, debate without the fear of exploding mid sentence.

I know, a little melodramatic. My point is this: Humans, as a race, have advanced far enough to be able to leave war behind. Military forces around the world should eventually be dismantled into smaller, unarmed forces. Money, the enormous amounts we spend during active campaigns, could then be redirected into programs of science and solving problems that plague all the people of earth.

__________________
To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage and principle.

LiveUninhibited

It's a nice idea, but it won't happen. Nations distrust each other... and for good reason. In order to get rid of militaries, it would require every nation to trust the government of every other nation. Why should they? How could they?

However, I do think we Americans would be better off if we spent less than half of what we currently do on the military, as we spend more than the rest of the world combined.

Shiva_TD

He's five feet two and he's six feet four
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of 31 and he's only 17
He's been a soldier for a thousand years

He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
and he knows he shouldn't kill
and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you

And he's fighting for Canada,
he's fighting for France,
he's fighting for the USA,
and he's fighting for the Russians
and he's fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way

And he's fighting for Democracy
and fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide
who's to live and who's to die
and he never sees the writing on the walls

But without him how would Hitler have
condemned him at Dachau
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body
as a weapon to a war
and without him all this killing can't go on

He's the universal soldier and he
really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me
and brothers can't you see
this is not the way we put an end to war.

Donovan

Slartibartfas

I oppose this nearly natural seeming continuation of politics into the means of war.

"Der Krieg ist eine bloße Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln."

That sentence from Clausowitz is one of the worst misinterpretations of reality in history. Its also one of the reasons why Europe destroyed itself 100 years later not only one but two times at the peak of its power.

War is much more than just the simple continuation of politics with different means. War is an abyss and it has eaten already many who underestimated that abyss.

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Slartibartfas

Interesting how this very argument was applied onto Europe only a few decades ago but today one sees a possible path how to escape this tyrades of the intra European wars at least. France attacking Germany... that sounds nearly unreal today.

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confucius

Spending less on training and military operations would mean nothing more than a less effective military.
And why do all nations world-round have good reason not to trust each. Trusting relationships between neighbors gives access to more land, resources, and common trade.

People all over earth, and especially the U.S., have been told to be proud of your nationality. Don't just be proud; fight, kill, die for your nation.
There are better things that drive us to greatness...

The one way to end international conflict is to remove the ability to make war. Then there would be trust, because no nation would have to fear another. I would like to travel the world without a passport for each country I visited. I'd like to carry one I.D. that states that I am a citizen of Earth and welcome to travel as I please.

__________________
To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage and principle.