The War

the whole "overpopulation" thing has been brought up over and over again in this thread, war isn't the only thing that could solve that problem, a human hunting season would do the same thing and would be a lot more fun!

Im pretty sure that disease and starvation do a much better job at controlling overpopulation versus war.

i would agree that war can and at times has helped curb problems with overpopulation, but the iraq war doesnt do a lot for that i dont think, at least not for foriegn countries involved. i mean, the us has only lost a few thousand soldiers thusfar(the anti-war graffiti at the city bus stop claims 3503, but who knows how reliable something written on the sidewalk is). the iraq war, at least for the us has had very low casualties.

the comment on technological benefits to war is spot on though. all kinds of tech advances have come from war or the threat of it. naval advances, radar, planes, space research, medicine, all kinds of stuff.

as for my opinion on the iraq war, a bit mixed i guess. i think it was started with good intentions and bad reasons. i dont think bush had oil, land or whatever else in mind so much as an overly idealistic concept of making the world a better place. the war seems to be a somewhat doomed situation. the region is going to be in dissarray no matter what outside forces try and i dont see any real way to obtain a clear victory.

perhaps a bit off topic but ive also noticed that a lot of people seem to use this debate/situation as reasoning to make bush out to be the best or worst pres. in history. i think he has some big flaws, but not enough to make him the worst. he's definatley a bit too idealistic for my tastes and he takes huge risks, but both of those have helped him in some situations. i'd say he's a mediocre pres thats just notoriously unlucky, i mean since hes been in office there been the countries largest terrorist attack, 2 succesive large hurricanes and a string of political embarassments w/in his party.

and just as a general disclaimer to accompany such a topic,i know people can get plenty heated talking about politics, wars, presidents, etc. these are just opinions

War is a terrible thing, but without it, we'd still be in the great depression, economies would be low, and we'd all be poor. Think about it, war links up to almost every job somehow. War creates the demand for more food goods, material goods and raw goods. In the important peoples eyes, the loses in wars are beneath them, the world still runs on a basis of social darwinism, its not as bad as the past, but the rich people in power still won't respect the working class. Simply to them war is a way to gain more money, land and other necessities they wish to have. We can't live in a permanent state of war, and we cannot have no war at all, it is like a yin yang, it needs perfect balance or it will fall apart and the wealth gained shall be lost, and the lives sacrificed will be useless.

[size=12] [/h] I believe that the reason we have wars is because of our lack of intelligence. The average human uses less than 10% of his brain capacity. If humans were more intelligent i they would be able to put aside their petty differences and actually work together for the common good. Another way to end war(Amongst humans) is to have a common enemy such as Anti-Human Aliens. if we all had a common predator I believe that would force us all to join hands together to remain at the top of the food chain.