Why Do People Go To War

Why do Humans go to War? When war is mentioned in a serious conversation, the first word that comes to mind is usually fear. The idea of war causes uneasiness for citizens as well as the military and political leaders; however discomposure is actually one of the main reasons humans go to war. Fear of another country, of power, or to bring fear to the opposer. Terror drives humans to act in a variety of ways, for example, the holocaust. Nazi Germany was ruled solely by fear. People during the time did whatever they were told, from wearing the star of David around to marching for days on end with little or no food in freezing temperatures, all out of panic. War is no different, the American Civil War was brought on by the Confederates fear

According to a Stanford University research survey, fear can be based off of an idea of preventative war. The idea behind preventative war is to take out a country before they grow any bigger for concern of an overthrow or future war with said country. The survey’s report also discusses other types of preventative war such as: “when one country has a current arms advantage and worries that the other will catch up in the future and that the future situation will be unstable… and so wishes to attack while the balance is in their favor.” Each of these preventative war tactics are based on feelings of fear and anxiety for the future of a nation. Some great examples of preventative war, or times when preventative war was strongly considered are the cold war, when America had access to nuclear weapons, while the Soviets did not, and going way back, The Second Peloponnesian War of 431–404 b.c.e., between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta, in which the Spartans began the war with a now or never tactic before the Athens became unbeatable. Jealousy and fright of other countries or nations is undoubtedly a prevailing reason for many wars and wars to

In many cases wars begin on the basis of either an argument relating to money, or one or both sides in need of money, finding war an “easy” answer to their prayers. Krugman brings up in his opinion piece “Why We Fight Wars” that according to Oxford economist, Paul Collier “the best predictor of civil war… is the availability of lootable resources like diamonds.” and goes on to say: “War would necessarily inflict severe economic harm, even on the victor.” Yet, even still humans continue to fight wars based on the fear of money, and the harm it could bring against them, or the fear that they couldn’t bring its harm upon other countries in future times of war, as was discussed in the previous paragraph. Money can result in war in a multitude of different ways. Within the United States there is no current war residing in or specifically involving our country; However, each and every day, many U.S soldiers find themselves in battle fields in Iraq and other countries at war. Why is this? Quite frankly, there is little to no reason for us to be involved besides greed. According to Dr. Gayle J. Hall, domestic violence expert and anti-war enthusiast, The U.S “has a necessity to improve Western access to Iraqi oil, and has spent trillions of dollars on this war” for an irrational concern that we may run out. We’re simply involved in wars that hardly pertain to our country’s well-being, and have furthered the debt of the U.S