why do nations think that declaring war will create peace?

Question

it's stupid right? a lot of people die because of this absurd idea... i mean, look what's going on in the middle east?! why cant they just stop the fighting and make ammends?

Answer 1

Well, declaring war by definition cannot create peace, but winning wars can. The longest period of peace--and the closest to world peace--in history was the Pax Romana. A period which followed the Romans conquering the known world and subjecting it to their rule of law.

Additionally, Twenteth Century history demonstrates that attempts to acheive peace for its ownsake without victory are foolhardy. In particular the Munich Agreement brokered in 1938 attempted to maintain peace through appeasement. As the ensuing war demonstraits that was a horrible failure.

The reason why fighting cannot just cease is that usually that requires somebody to lose something dear to them. If you look at the most prolific conflict of recent time, the Israeli-Palastinien fued, each side has a strong attachment to the same strech of land. And more so to their right to control that land. Any deal to be struck would require one side to lose everything or both sides to lose something.

One cannot let go of their own convictions--what they have sworn their lives for--simple for the idea of peace. Peace without victory in the course of human history has been either fleeting.

Answer 2

It depends on the nation who's doing the declaring. Those who declare war for selfish reasons like conquest or gratification dont really care about peace but are interested in power. Those who declare war in the interest of survival think that there is a mortal threat to their very existence. Still there are those who think that by marching to war they could actually save innocents especially when those innocents are under mortal threat (genocides like the Holocaust which is very real if not historical and more recently the ones in Africa). Why cant they make amends...on one end you have Jews (Israelis) who have ancient claims to Palestine and think that the Muslims are out to finish what Hitler started (which is kill every Jew down to the last child), while on the other hand you have Muslims who want a Middle East that's wholly Islamic (a.k.a the Islamic Crescent) and want the whole of Palestine as a result. No matter what people like you and I wish...there can never be true peace unless either one of the following happens: 1.) The Muslims altogether drop their pathetic notion of an Islamic Middle East and live with the Jewish state (I am not saying all Muslims cant coexist or are evil and intolerant incarnate...just the powerful/influential/stupid ones in the Middle East and elswhere who should be killed off). Or 2.) The Jews finally die off but not before taking 56% of the Muslim world with it. The first is very desirable yet unlikely...the second is far more tragic yet closer to reality than any of us think (especially if the extremists somehow get weapons of mass destruction).

Answer 3

Kant defines the peace in his book 'Perpetual Peace' as: something that just can be reached in the 'limit', in the 'eternal', AFTER DIE...I think this is something like a spiral or helical: for the sake of peace you start war, or because of the natural condition of humanrace; war, you idealize the peace...There are always ends and means. Strategically and logically, if your aim is good and your means is bad, there is no problem, you realize it. So wars happen. But if your aim; peace is for your people's happiness, and your means; war just destroys your and other's peoples, then there can be no mention of a civilized living speices. Humanity is the only kind that realizes 'genocide'. As Kant shows the peace as under the soil, in the grave...that is an irony I think you can not reach peace in this world, you can reach it when you die, and when you war for peace you again die, so PEACE IS IN THE GRAVE...

Answer 4

I dont' know, People fear what is different. But there has been war through out history, I guess people think that if we can kill more of them, they'lll see things our way. To some extent this is true. If you look at history, the only true peace ful times were after great wars.

Answer 5

Would it be because in the entire history of the world , there has never been peace without a fight first. Sorry, It's the nature of the beast, called human.

Answer 6

I agree, but when you have to secure the people of your country and brutal people don't agree that you have the right to exist and want to kill your people, you have to do something about it or more and more innocent people will get killed.

Answer 7

I completely agree. People should learn how to settle issues without violence, learn how to compromise!!