Assignment 9: Joseph Craven

War is, and most likely will always be, an extremely divisive concept. Many people believe that war is a necessary and advantageous method of settling conflict, while others believe that war is unacceptable in all scenarios. I believe that war is an available option, but not a mandatory one, when diplomacy fails and people's rights and safety become violated. A good example of useful war is World War II; Germany and their allies were attempting to gain unlawful control of other nations, ignoring peace pleas from other nations. As a result, the Allies used military power to cease these actions. However, war comes at a cost: roughly 60 million people died as a result of this global conflict. Due to the immense death counts that result from major military conflict, it is clear that war is not a great choice, but it is merely the lesser of two evils: war or oppression. As for when a country is obligated to go to war, I don't believe that a country is ever obligated to go to war, yet I respect a country's decision to go to war if the country or one of their allies is in danger due to a foreign or domestic power. Hopefully peace and diplomacy can be the main way of negotiating conflict in the future, but until then, it is important to use war only when deemed necessary.