"Why We Fight"
A freely streamable documentary film
"We Like War Because We're Good At It"
George Carlin video
***
Why we fight wars. "Once upon a time wars were fought for fun and profit; when Rome overran Asia Minor or Spain conquered Peru, it was all about the gold and silver. And that kind of thing still happens. In influential research sponsored by the World Bank, the Oxford economist Paul Collier has shown that the best predictor of civil war, which is all too common in poor countries, is the availability of lootable resources like diamonds. Whatever other reasons rebels cite for their actions seem to be mainly after-the-fact rationalizations. War in the preindustrial world was and still is more like a contest among crime families over who gets to control the rackets than a fight over principles. If you’re a modern, wealthy nation, however, war — even easy, victorious war — doesn’t pay." Paul Krugman in The New York Times
No comments:
Post a Comment