Why Study War?

Some thoughts to consider from Victor Davis Hanson:

The modern age is free to interpret war as a failure of communication, of diplomacy, of talking--as if aggressors don't know exactly what they're doing.

We must abandon the naive faith that with enough money, education, or good intentions we can change the nature of mankind so that conflict, as if by fiat, becomes a thing of the past. In the end, the study of war reminds us that we wil never be gods. We will always just be men, it tells us. Some men will prefer war to peace; and other men, we who have learned from the past, have a moral obligation to stop them.