The Futility of War

‘In peace, prepare for war. In war, prepare for peace’

While the above quote is often attributed to the Chinese General Sun Tzu, the famed author of the book ‘The Art of War’ which to this day remains one of the most comprehensive compilation of strategies of East-Asian Warfare, nearly 2700 years after it’s writing. However it is a play on the ancient roman motto ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum’, which translates to ‘If you want peace, prepare for war. War is defined as ‘a situation of conflict between multiple countries or opposing groups within a country.’ Wars have played an essential role in human history from as early as 10,000 BC, with the first recorded war took place in 2700 B.C in Mesopotamia between the forces of Sumer and Elam.

War has historically played a crucial role in the shaping of the modern world as it is today.

Wars have helped redefine nations, borders and systems of government till they have reached the form that they are of today. It has also helped forge various powerful international alliances and agreements that have helped the world, by way of advancements in technology, medicine, infrastructure and culture.

Therefore we could say that war has benefits as well as problems. It largely helps develop the economy, through increase in demand for military equipment, including and not limited to, weapons, aircraft, vehicles, ammunition, explosives, cloth, ships, etc… It would create conditions for the formation of governments and coalitions which would otherwise not have been possible, such as with the Nazi government post World War One(This was largely due to an economic crisis in the Weimar Republic, with support for them rising from 3% in 1928 to 44% in 1933. It is to note that Democracy as a whole was only truly possible post World War One). War also fosters the development of technology, with the Jet Engine, Electronic Computers and Radar being developed during World War Two, and some household luxuries such as Vacuum Cleaners and Microwaves being crated during the Cold War to assist in the Space Race. Certain advancements in Medicine, such as Penicillin, the Flu Vaccine, Blood Plasma Transfusions, Amputations, Antibiotics, Chemotherapy, the usage of metal plates to heal fractures and even the usage of X-rays in a medical setting, along with the usage of Gatorade (which now is a commonly available energy drink) to help troops acclimatize to foreign climates, heavy in heat and humidity. It also helps liberate countries from foreign and hostile bodies, examples include India from the United Kingdom, France, Poland and parts of the USSR from Nazi Germany and Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and China from Japanese control.

Another rarely seen side effect of war was during the Mongol Conquests in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries killed so much people that enormous swaths of cultivated farmland turned into forests. Genghis khan and his tribes invasions killed nearly 40 million people (around 10% of global population at the time), this caused the removal of nearly 700 million tons of Carbon from the atmosphere and unknowing caused the first ever man made cooling

of the planet. This however is a largely improbable event, giving the present large scale use of Explosives in war and overpopulation in general.

While the reasons that war is beneficial exists, there are a significant number of reasons against war, it include the immense loss of live, infrastructure and political instability. And any economic growth (even those stated above), are purely temporary, and may cause a huge economic recession post war, as seen after World War One, with the Great Depression and the eventual rise of Nazi Germany and the subsequent Second World War. Aside from this, there is also the potential use of Nuclear and Chemical Weapons. Nuclear weapons emit high levels of radiation which can cause cancer and birth defects among the populace. With chemical weapons such as Agent Orange and Agent White which also caused Birth Defects and Cancer and rendered the ground useless, other chemicals such as Agent Blue, Agent Purple, Agent Pink, Agent Green which were herbicides and Napalm which was used to burn the vegetation and the soldiers who were hidden in the vegetation, burning at 2,000 Degrees Farenheit, being caught in it meant certain death.

There are many reasons for war, four thousand years ago, this was primarily for food or for the case of the Jivaro tribe, where nearly 60% of men were killed in warfare compared to around 1% (of men in Europe and the US) in the twentieth century, they killed merely to see who the most virile would be, and other tribes to gain parts of a soul, which could only be obtained by killing. Most wars in the twentieth century have been to gain territory or exert dominance over another racial group or country. However in the mid twentieth century another type of war rose to be the most common- Proxy Wars, this was a type of warfare in which each of the different factions were supported by a global super power, for example North Korea, in the Korean War was supported by the USSR and China, who aimed to conquer the entirety of the Koreas and establish a Communist nation, whereas South Korea was supported by the USA and the United Nations, who aimed to protect the sovereignty of South Korea and establish a democratic Capitalist form of government, this same phenomenon could be seen in the war in Afghanistan and Vietnam among other countries. Another form of war prevelant from the sixteenth century was in order to colonize countries, primarily Europen countries, such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and France colonising various part of North and South America, Australia, Africa and Asia, primarily through warfare and violence. Subsequently, most countries revolted against these countries in order to establish their own sovereignty, with the United States of America being the first country to do so after gaining it’s independence from the British in 1789. This is usually called a revolutionary war.

There are also Civil Wars in a nation which may be caused by different ideologies clashing within a country, for which the US is another example, with states in support of Slavery forming a breakaway nation and thereby causing the Civil War of the United States. In Greek antiquity several wars were fought against those who had committed acts of sacrilege against the god of the Sun, Apollo, who is said to drive his chariot across the sky (the chariot here, symbolizes the Sun), there also was the war against followers of Christianity, though due to a lack of resistance by the Christians, it would more aptly be termed as a with hunt.

Ultimately, most wars these days are fought for economic gain, with some of the most apt examples of this being European colonization of other less advanced civilizations, it nevertheless continues to this day, with the Finnish-Soviet or Winter War being an example of the same, where the Soviet Union invaded Finland with the aim of capturing land to mine Lithium ore. Nowadays, most wars, namely the wars in the Middle East primarily happen due to Western nations’ desire to gain wealth and exploit the oil reserves, among other reasons. Various wars and conflicts in Africa can be linked with religious reasons. The current Russia-Ukraine war is purely due to Russia’s desire to annex Ukraine and to gain territory.

While the author does not necessarily support the concept of war, it is without a doubt an essential tool in shaping human history and culture. Modern wars such as the World War One and World War Two, even the Vietnam war have been catalysts of a sort of Renaissance and have led to newer more modern forms of art, music, dance and inspired a large number of documentaries and films. Despite this however war should be condoned and it’s effect and efficacy in modern society should be questioned. While we cannot say for sure whether wars are futile or not, it is important to the development of Human society, for without pain, how can we know joy? Without wars, there is no saying for sure that humans would be in the state that we are now? Would we actually have developed equipment capable of taking us to faraway planets? Would we be able to travel from one corner of the world to another? We simply would not have the current comforts and luxury that we have today. For all we know, without war we may still exist as severely divided factions scattered across our planet.