poly: war: organized theft

Someone here expressed the idea that war is usually a mistake for
the initiator.

I disagree.

I think it's worth considering the (distasteful) hypothesis that
war is profitable, on average, for the people doing it.
Wars of conquest are out of fashion, but they won the New World
for the Americans & Europeans. I think a careful accounting
would show that the British Empire turned a profit.

It ain't nice, but it's worth thinking about.

Rich Schroeppel rcs@cs.arizona.edu
Received on Mon Jun 8 23:05:57 1998