I love Barbara Ehrenreich...

... author of Nickel and Dimed and For Her Own Good.

She has written an article about the "Roots of War" that I find very compelling. In particular I agree with her contention that while humanity has committed violence on itself, that does not make war a "natural" human preclination:

"But war is too complex and collective an activity to be accounted for by any warlike instinct lurking within the individual psyche. Battles, in which the violence occurs, are only one part of war, most of which consists of preparation for battle – training, the manufacture of weapons, the organization of supply lines, etc. There is no plausible instinct, for example, that could impel a man to leave home, cut his hair short, and drill for hours in tight formation."

In addition she discusses the vicious cycle that war creates, not the "war equals peace" rhetoric that Dubya was espousing:

"In other words, as the Dutch social scientist Henk Houweling puts it, "one of the causes of war is war itself." Wars produce war-like societies, which, in turn, make the world more dangerous for other societies, which are thus recruited into being war-prone themselves. Just as there is no gene for war, neither is there a single type or feature of society – patriarchy or hierarchy – that generates it. War begets war and shapes human societies as it does so."

( Anyway, here's the whole article. )