Isn't all warfare really just class warfare?

[FarLeftFist]

War is this barbaric thing rich empires do to make poor people kill other poor people. They're literally paying half the poor people to kill the other half of the poor people. I never see rich people fighting wars on the battlefield. Imagine that.

Nope. Just poor American soldiers VS. poor foreign soldiers/civilians. I'm sick of living in a country in a perpetual state of war that keeps throwing money into this bottomless, vacuous black hole, while the citizens of this country suffer. Think of the society we could have created if we used those trillions of dollars differently. It's heartbreaking.

We could have almost completely eliminated poverty in America with that money, instead we're throwing it all away in another country. Ridiculousness.

[begin_within]

1. The way I see it,

Regular warfare is as you described where the rich fight other rich while using the poor to do the actual fighting. Class warfare is when the rich fight the poor or middle class; a type of civil war.

[PDJane]

2. Yes, of course............

Although conscription tends to level the playing field somewhat....and tends to be a great leveller of classes in the end.

We all starve and die.

[dkf]

3. I thought warfare tends to be over resources?

[Kennah]

8. It is

The resources are needed by the engines of capitalism.

Armies used to go to war over salt.

Today they go to war over oil.

Years from now, who knows. Maybe they'll go to war over water.

[octothorpe]

10. I think it's simplistic to say it's to feed the engines of capitalism...

Don't you think there would still be wars even without capitalistic societies? Even socialist nations need resources.

[Kennah]

14. 9/11 was blowback tracing back to Mossadegh

To show that the U.S. didn't learn anything, we invaded Iraq. Oil was at the heart of the toppling of Mossadegh, and I think oil remains a huge factor in the calculus behind Iraq.

You make a good point about invasions, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan comes to mind. Perhaps war is more broadly pursued because of jingoism--whether motivated by Capitalism, Communism, or something else.

[white_wolf]

4. I agree with you. It is a terrible waste of life and money.

Now, how do we solve this problem? Our economic system requires war and expansion. We are living in the imperial stage of capitalism. The ruling class needs more resources and they don't give a damn who dies as long as they can make a profit.

[socialist_n_TN]

5. A slight correction, wolf. They don't give a damn who dies

as long as it's not them. AND as long as they can make a profit.

[white_wolf]

6. I'm not so sure. I could see the Koch brothers sending their kids to war if it made them a dollar.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. Maybe their kids.........

but not themselves.

[coalition_unwilling]

9. Maybe all modern warfare (post-1648). The Thirty Years War (which

was very nasty and pitted Protestant against Catholic) does not strike me as particularly class-based.

[octothorpe]

11. There are still many religious and tribal wars being waged

We could probably go through them and find some economic aspects of them, but that would just be a part of the reasoning.

[Le Taz Hot]

12. From one of my favorite Pink Floyd pieces:

"With. Without. And after all, it's what the fighting's all about."
K & R

[FarCenter]

13. No -- Wars can be fought over religion, language, race, and other markers of tribal identity

Humans have a natural propensity to form tribes and then go out and make war on the neighboring tribe.

Most wars have not been class warfare.