At 15:42 10/10/97 -0400, Adam K. Webb wrote:
> I wholly agree that core war among USA+EU+Japan is unlikely; there
>is an illustrative remark by a character in a Milan Kundera novel, that
>"war among European peoples [presumably this extends to a broader category
>now] is now impossible--not just politically impossible,
>_anthropologically_ impossible." Apart from the convergence and
>denationalisation of economic interests, it seems that such populations no
>longer have the psychology for a major war involving mass sacrifice.
but (1) its not necessarily the case that the major sacrifices will
be apparent up front -- and recall how few 'major sacrifices' that people
in Germany made due to the war effort (yeah, you can argue that the genocide
and the war effort was part of the same malignancy, but I mean due to the
war effort itself) until fairly late in the conflict. If you can get the
fight started, for whatever reason, and then the opponent engages in some
nasty thing against your civilian population, sometimes unexpected bouts
of war fever can hit a population.
Virtually,
Bruce McFarling, Newcastle, NSW
ecbm@cc.newcastle.edu.au