Logan Blain

Why do we go to War?

        War is a part of most every civilization's history. A reason for war in the stone age might have been over something as simple as a rich piece of land. Over time, the reasons for war have become much more complicated. The motives for every war is different but there are some that are very common. Even in the early A.D. Years, people were fighting over land because conquest was a common practice among early civilizations. Already, we can see how the reasons for a war have become slightly more complicated. From the early A.D. Period to post-modern times our reasons for going to war have still evolved and changed although some similarities still exist. Our human nature is hostile and vengeful under the right circumstances; one of the many reasons we go to war is to defend or seek revenge upon another force. Another reason to engage in war is to achieve a specific goal. The reasons that we go to war change between each war but they are all aroused by our natural tendencies to seek revenge on those who do us wrong and to pursue and achieve a goal.

        Not only in war, but in any situation, a human's tendency is to do back to someone what has been done to them. If you get punched by someone (most people) will punch back and this same principle can be applied on a larger scale which deals with whole countries and military forces, when focusing on the initial reasons for the war. There were many factors that played into the American intervention of World War II but the one that pushed Americans over the edge was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The reason that I am focusing on this aspect of American intervention is because it is the one that applied to the tendency of human nature in which I am discussing. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor the over-all American feeling was anger and in turn they wanted revenge. U.S. Entered the war on December 7, 1941 which was the same day as the bombing. The Japanese destroyed a piece of America's own and they were angry and wanted revenge, although this is not the only reason the U.S. entered the war, it was the spark that ignited the flame. It is an elementary concept but holds true in many instances concerning war. War essentially has the same plot as middle school fight: someone has hostile feelings towards another for any number of reasons, the hostile individual takes action and attacks the victim, the victim usually retaliates, thus starting a war. When Pearl Harbor was bombed and America wanted revenge on the Japanese, so they entered the war.

        Another reason that a country might enter or initiate a war would be to achieve a specific goal, these goals could include political, economic, or humanitarian characteristics. In the case of the Vietnam war America was trying to achieve the political goal of preventing the spread of communism. America believed that by helping South Vietnam fight North Vietnam they would prevent or limit the spread of communism throughout the world. So here we see that America is trying to achieve containment of communism and this is the primary reason for the U.S.'s intervention in Vietnam. In Black Hawk Down American's intervened in Somalia for humanitarian purposes. They were trying to help relieve the famine. Another example of the motive of achieving a goal is the Revolutionary war. The Revolutionary war was a Revolution against Britain, who at the time controlled America. The English parliament, which ruled America, taxed the colonists, which made them angry towards Britain. The American colonists got tired of being ruled by a foreign king and wanted independence and the result was a rebellion. After the war was won by the Americans, on July 4^th, 1776 a Declaration of Independence is written and the United States is born. 

        After looking chronologically at the motives for engaging in war, it is obvious how they have gotten more complex over time, yet the motive itself is nothing foreign to us as individuals. If human nature was different in that we weren't so quick, it brings about the question of how would war be different if we more passive in terms of war. In the example of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it shows just how quick humans are, that is we wasted no time in joining a war to get revenge on the Japanese who attacked us. If our genetic m
ake-up had us as more passive beings, would we have as many wars? Would the world be more peaceful? Our non-passive tendencies also give us the characteristic that we create goals that we seek to achieve. In many of our U.S. Wars, the primary motive for entering is to obtain something set by the specific circumstance. Overall, fighting is part of a human's natural behavior.