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I have just finished reading Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein, and typically, an anti-Draft song starts playing.

Despite having a blackbelt in a martial art, and playing violent videogames for the majority of my life, I am a pacifist. I whole-heartedly believe that war and killing are the absolute darkest parts of humanity.

The thought of Vietnam, knowing just how many people died, and for what cause? is actually physically sickening, and although I have the chance to go there this Christmas, I don't want to if I'm going to see a spectre of such a disgrace. To quote Bruce Springsteen, "A lot of folks went there, and a lot of folks didn't come back."

I'm scared of what's happening in the world today. I'm scared of how Bush/Cheney/any right wing American clamouring for war is going to act. Condeleeza Rice is blaming Iran for instigating a lot of the protests of the Muhamed cartoons. I'm scared at how easily the flames are being fanned across the world. The 'Freedom of Speech' appeal is nearly a straw man, and it's framing Islam as over-reactionary and intolerant.

I'm afraid for the world, because we're all too deaf to each other, and we demonize and ostracize each other, without thinking that they too, are human beings. I'm scared that we're starting down a road that we're all going to come to regret.

Is anyone else worried about the world?

You think it's bad now, just you wait. Inevitably, small arms technology will get to the point where one man with a gun can obliterate skyscrapers. When that starts happening, I intend to turn on the news and laugh all day long.

Terrorism will only get worse, because technology continues to make it more and more viable. They didn't have C4 and jumbo jets 100 years ago, and as such there was a lot less terrorism 100 years ago.

And remember, Americas weaponry is usually a few decades ahead of what's publicly known. Powered armor = few American causalties = no holds barred invasions!

War is inevitible as long as seperate, equal sovereign states exist with no power above them. Terrorism is really just a sideshow compared to what is coming next, be it in 10 years or 50 years. Eventually a nation will emerge which is strong enough to challenge the global dominance of the US. The US will attempt to defend it's position, and we'll have WW3. The cycle will go on untill something changes the fundamental rules interstate relations, ie either one nation extinguishes the sovereignty of all others and unites the human race, or the earth becomes uninhabitible and we all die.

A better way would be to create a world state through co-operation. Nations could voluntarily cede their sovereignty to a world state which would have a monopoly on all legal military force on earth. The state would act for the good of all mankind, favouring no particular race, colour or creed. This however, I find unlikely to happen. Certainly suicide by competition is a more probable outcome.


War! Huh, yea. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Huh!

War is just another form of population control by the all mighty.

Bring back the Roman Empire!

^^ Fuck yea!

But the Roman Empire never could have ruled the world. For a central government to be viable it needs to be in constant communication with every region under its control. It needs to be able to project military force quickly and reliably to the remotest locations. The Roman empire reached it's peak in the 2nd century AD. It was so unweildy that the legates of the frontier provinces were basically kings themselves, independent from Imperial authority. If central directives conflicted with their own designs, they felt free to disobey, even levy war against Rome itself. Now that technology has progressed sufficiently, a world state is feasible in a practical sense.

We need to find some habitable planets, pack everyone into massive colony ships and send each religion to its own world.

Then nuke all the holy cities of Earth from high orbit.

Why does war have to be inevitable?

Because weapons are like computers: they keep getting cheaper, smaller, more numerous, and more powerful.

Does that mean that they have to be used?

Some crazy people will always use them, and crazy people don't look like they're going away any time soon.

Or if you prefer, replace 'crazy' with 'oppressed and misunderstood', whatever floats your boat.

Well, I subscribe to the Hobbesian school of thought that nations are basically people in the state of nature writ large. Leave them alone and they will conflict because of three elements which are always present: competition, diffidence, and most importantly, the desire for glory. But if you put someone above them to keep them in line, issues (most of the time) can be reasolved peacefully.

YAAAAAAAAAHEEEEEEEE!