Absolutely nothing? Well, not exactly.
We must not over look the benefits to the few, the powerful, the rulers, despots, aristrocrats, kings and presidents. To these war is great. War brings wealth, power, and ever more control over the people. It increases taxes, reduces populations, furthers political ideologies and all the while manages to add credibility to the rulers and their power to rule.
What does war bring to the people? Death. Oppression. Costs. Governmental intrusion into the most personal aspects of life. Total control. Dishonest judiciaries, corrupt pro-political courts, corruption in government and corporations. Torture, imprisonment, murder of dissidents, destruction of lives, families, communities, cities and dreams of a better world. As always, the people pay with their lives and their money, funding it all and doing all the dying, on the demand, command and say-so of their dear rulers.
Speeches about patriotism, scary stories of threats beyond borders, depictions of evil doers intent on doing evil to our own good people. It's the same recipe in every country for every war. Soon the people are moved to pick up weapons and kill strangers all the while believing it was necessary but strangely and sadly never with hard proof. Never with plain ordinary evidence to prove what their leaders are telling them about the "enemy" and the impending threat is true. Could it be that the people are being taken advantage of so that the power and glory hungry leaders can get their political rocks off? It could.
The bankers have always profited wildly because they fund both sides of the war. They get VERY rich. Bankers are very pro-war. The weapons makers have always profited, they sell weapons to both sides and never ask questions. A lot of death and suffering are the price to the people who never, ever, benefit from war. Something is obviously seriously wrong with this set up. War is a racket. And leaders who never go to war themselves never have to pay the ultimate price. What's it to them? Well, to them, it's all good.
Included below for you are some numbers. Numbers of human beings who have died in wars of all kinds. The numbers are very high, too high to comprehend. No one even remembers most of these wars or why they were fought but the numbers remain. The numbers of dead children, women, men, fathers, mothers, uncles, brothers and sisters, grandparents still remain. Battles everywhere for every reason have left the earth literally soaked in human blood. Can it get any worse than this? After all the death and destruction, what have we learned? What have we gained? How have the people of the world benefitted from all this carnage and pain? Can you answer any of those questions?
If not, you're not alone. Isn't that beyond comprehension? How can we not have learned or achieved anything after all of the hundreds of millions of deaths, most of which are always innocent civilians? How can there not be a benefit so obvious that every person on earth can speak it immediately? Shouldn't we all know the answers, if indeed there are any?
Is "man's inhumanity to man" a myth fueled by the greed and lust for power of those few men who want to rule the world?
Can you think of any other reason?
In case you've never read it, "War Is A Racket" is a piece so classic, so honest, so real and so important that it should be taught in every school. By the time children are in sixth grade they should know this piece as well as they know the stories about Superman and Disneyland. They should understand what those who have gone before have learned. They should understand that there are two sides to the story of what war is, and why it is. They should know there is good reason to doubt that there could ever be any real need to go away to a foreign land and kill perfect strangers in the name of some idealistic "good". But it isn't taught in school. In fact few have even heard of it. Why?
Our leaders don't want us to hear the voices of those who have fought and learned the truth and want to bring it back to tell the people. Our leaders are afraid of those voices. If our leaders are so insecure about taking us off to eternal wars there must be a reason. If they were certain they were telling the truth about war what would they have to fear in letting people speak openly about it? Yes, even our own government is very controlling of what is said about war. It is always painted as glorious and patriotic with flags and high ranking officials and the media glamorizing it. No one ever speaks of the costs or deaths or suffering. Why? That's what war is: Costs and deaths and suffering. That's what it is to the people.
That should be what it is to our leaders. But as you now realize, that's not at all what it is to our leaders. Our lives, human lives, are of no consequence to those who will gain so very much from war in wealth and in power and in gaining ever more domination over the people.
