[Athena]

I am asking why people go to war, because I am in training with the Beyond War organization, and this international organization has a very inadequate explanation of why people go to war. At least that is so at my local level. It is my intent to rewrite the chapter in a very large training book, explaining why nations war against nations. Keeping in mind this information could be dispersed national and even international, how do you explain why people war?

One of the most important things a government does is assure the people have the resources necessary to meeting the needs of people they govern. This was true of the most ancient governments as it is today. The primary way of assuring the people's needs are met are, rituals to appease the gods or please the one true god, and military might used for economic conquest. This is what people in government think about and what people are willing to be governed. When the fail, as Russia and France failed, the people revolt in hopes of replacing failing government with government that will not fail them. When they succeed they go down in history as great leaders, and this as close to being immortal as a human can get.

The people they govern are thinking about the things they want, like enough food for the whole year, or a new car, and possibly their families, and the education of their children. You know the mandane stuff that fills our paltry lives. They are not thinking about where the supply of gold for coins is coming from, nor their supply of wood for ships, or iron for weapons, or oil to maintain their industry that gives them their desirable standard of living. They are not thinking about their countries world markets, and how to hold a world market when France or Spain would gladly take it away. They trust their government to manage these things for them. So how is it that these people are lead to war?

What does the philosophy of Leo Strauss have to do government and war? How about Thucydides explanation of the Peloponnesian wars and what war does to people's thinking? Are there any other sources explaining the causes of war and what war does to human thinking and relationships? How about a good explanation of the evolution of civilizations and when they reach that point where military conquest become the driving force of their governments?