The Tragedy of War
In seeking to understand why nations go to war, we often search for rational motivations such as the quest for money, or power, or territory, or that most elusive of goals—justice. But the truth is that often there is no reason behind descent into war other than the hostility and animosity between one nation and another.
In his essay “Separation of Reconciliation? The Nationalities Question in the USSR,” Igor Shafarevich identifies “resentment, malice and pain” as a predominant cause of conflict between nations—people driven by these emotions set aside all rational thought as they become consumed with thoughts of vengeance and retribution for their grievances. As Shafarevich puts it, “the pitch of emotion is more powerful even than the instinct of self-preservation,” and the warmongers “tend to forget everything the past has taught us.” They understand the tragedy of war, yet time and again they agitate for war as the solution to their political disputes.
The caution sounded by Shafarevich applies to those who glorify General Sherman’s total war against civilians in the American South. As Sherman saw it, there was no distinction between civilians and combatants since combatants might rely upon the moral and practical “aid and comfort” of their civilian families. In his 2007 book, Slavery, Secession, and Civil War, Charles Adams observes that, “When the war ended, and even 140 years later, the gatekeepers of Civil War history are still making the North’s war on the South—the most tragic event in all our history—into a noble cause for abolition.”
Those who celebrate the burning of the South claim that war crimes against Southern civilians were justified because it was for the “higher cause” of ending slavery. By conferring a “righteous cause” on the war, they are able to celebrate an event that left almost a million men dead and the South in smoking ruins. The glorification of their righteous war has become so important to them that it crowds out any concerns about the horrors of war. Their only philosophy is that their righteous ends justify the tyrannical means which, as they see it, was necessary to achieve the desired goal. In “Just War,” Murray Rothbard explains:
The Northern war against slavery partook of fanatical millennialist fervor, of a cheerful willingness to uproot institutions, to commit mayhem and mass murder, to plunder and loot and destroy, all in the name of high moral principle and the birth of a perfect world. The Yankee fanatics were veritable Patersonian humanitarians with the guillotine: the Anabaptists, the Jacobins, the Bolsheviks of their era. This fanatical spirit of Northern aggression for an allegedly redeeming cause is summed up in the pseudo-Biblical and truly blasphemous verses of that quintessential Yankee Julia Ward Howe, in her so-called “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Any “righteous cause” harnesse
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
