Aristotle said "We make war that we might have peace". What do you think?

Question

Could a great mind in history be right? Will war lead to peace? Has WWII allowed us to live in peace without Hitler's control?
Can we as individuals decide which wars lead to peace & which wars are fought for unjust reasons? He made me think today - what about you?

Answer 1

We do not live yet in a world where peace can be maintained by wishful thinking - the fact that most modern societies maintain police or military forces to insure the respect of national and international, civil and criminal laws is an immediate proof of this. The alternative is chaos and insecurity, regression and suffering.

Until now, on the international level, the use of dissuasion - the maintenance of credible conventional or unconventional military forces -- and the use of such military doctrines as "Mutual Assured Destruction", thankfully never tested-- was sufficient to dissuade foreign governments or regimes to attack one's country.

Since the end of the 20th century and now at the dawn of the 21st, the development of unconventional weapons (biochemical, nuclear) both in power, miniaturization and lethality, and the dire consequences of a first strike attack, combined with the relative easiness with which they can be created, produced or disseminated by organizations who can now evade the control of the states, mean that the classical responses of states to iminent threaths to their security must be rethought.

In a world where the ennemy is not clearly identified, where innocent civil populations could be targeted or held hostage by criminal or terrorist organizations, can we afford to react only after the latter gets an opportunity to strike first? Can we tolerate that foreign governments, by passivity or weakness, allowe such criminal or terrorist organizations to expand unimpeded?

Democracies will have very difficult times ahead, and they will all have to walk a very fine line between the necessity to protect the rights of their citizens (to live freely, in security), and the necessity to bring the war, preemptively if necessary, when diplomacy or containment aren't enough, unto those who would be a deadly threath to those rights - threaths who have never been before so formidable both in lethality and horror.
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“If war is ever lawful, then peace is sometimes sinful”
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/to_secure_peace_is_to_prepare_for/159870.html
C.S. Lewis (British Scholar and Novelist. 1898-1963)

“Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace”
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/whatever_enables_us_to_go_to_war-secures_our/167332.html
Thomas Jefferson quotes (American 3rd US President (1801-09). Author of the Declaration of Independence. 1762-1826)

Answer 2

It depends. War is caused today by the failure of diplomats. If it's a last resort (like WWII), a good outcome can be achieved (you have right on your side). If you do it preemptively (like Vietnam or I suspect, like Iraq today), a bad outcome will occur.

Of course, Aristotle was a member of the Greek Empire, and look what happened to it. You make war, eventually, you're going to lose.

Answer 3

I think this quote is more indicative of the Iraq war:
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. - Confucius

I believe WWII was justified. I don't believe the current war is.

Answer 4

I don't understand the Aristotle thought. It depends who make war and who will get peace from the war. For example: terrorist will gain peace if they win war against Israel and USA? USA will gain peace if they win terrorist? it depend who wins. If terrorist wins you will not fell like you have peace...

Answer 5

yes , he's right ! prepare 4 a war against pak _ _ _ _ _ !!!

Answer 6

Yes good ready go now whit me