Is There Another Way?
We are at war. Again.
I am old enough to remember the 1970 song “War” and its iconic refrain: “War, huh! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!” And yet—here we are. Again and again and again.
I have lived through the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the post‑9/11 “Forever Wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with numerous interventions in Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Bosnia, and Syria, and now Iran—another moment in a long, familiar pattern.
And those are just the ones involving my lifetime and my country.
This is not a simple or comfortable question—but it’s one we avoid at our peril.
What compels men to violence?