ABSTRACT
War is hell. History is drenched with blood, and the vast majority of its wars were fought for bad reasons, with bad results. Pacifists say war never solves anything and ask why we can't just resolve disputes nonviolently. Warfare is always a tough choice, but authentic morality means facing up to such tough choices rather than dodging them with simplistic pieties. Those who died in the Civil War to preserve this nation and end slavery were true moral heroes. A country going to war nowadays would pay an unbearably heavy price, by losing its place in the planet-wide economic supply chain. The evolution of warfare is itself a factor. It may be true that modern modes of war are impersonal and seemingly put distance between killer and killed. Ancient warfare was, moreover, constant and widespread. Peace was not the normal situation. Climate change stokes fears of future wars, particularly over water.
