bmg@mck-csc.UUCP (Bernard M. Gunther) (09/26/85)
I've been hearing people mention that aggression is not cost effective. I must disagree on this. It can be most cost effective, especially under certain circumstances. If you look backto the 100 Year War, Gustas Adolfus (sp?) had a very interesting way of paying his troups. He said, while sitting outside an enemy town, something to the effect of: "Troops, you pay is inside that town. Go for it." He did not loose money nor very many battles. I will agree that aggression is not effective in increasing the net worth over all parties involved, but it does change the distribution significantly. An organized band will probably defeat a disorganized band. Libertaria will have serious trouble with any government with which the people in that government are happy. Bernie Gunther
janw@inmet.UUCP (09/30/85)
[Bernie Gunther : bmg@mck-csc ] > If you look backto the 100 Year War, Gustas Adolfus > (sp?) had a very interesting way of paying his troups. > ... "Troops, you pay is inside > that town. Go for it." He did not loose money nor very many battles. 30 Year War , Gustavus Adolphus. In his time, this was quite usual. In our time, it wouldn't work : costs of war have risen out of all proportion with possible loot. On the flip side, not all gains are pecuniary. Therefore, in our time, serious wars are likely to be started or provoked only by governments that are not commercially motivated. "Bourgeois democracies" are thus doubly exempted. Jan Wasilewsky
myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Latitudinarian Lobster) (10/19/85)
> > On the flip side, not all gains are pecuniary. > Therefore, in our time, serious wars are likely to be started > or provoked only by governments that are not commercially motivated. > "Bourgeois democracies" are thus doubly exempted. > > Jan Wasilewsky I take it that counter-insurgency operations and war against Nicaragua are ideologically rather than commercially motivated? What is the primary source of political and military power in the US today? Or, perhaps you do not consider war against the peoples of the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua as ``serious wars.'' Jeff Myers