Why is there so much war?

[Forrest]

How does the ruling class profit from constant war?

[Manifesto]

Well what is needed for war? Weapons. War creates a demand for weapons which they profit off of like in Vietnam, the war economy.

[Red Commissar]

Yea, it allows for them to quickly sell off material and make profit as well, rather than having it sit around somewhere after they made it. There's always a demand so as long as a war is going on.

[red cat]

It is rather a redistribution of colonies forced by imperialist powers that are growing stronger.

[cop an Attitude]

For a multitude of reasons, although the act of war is most often counter-productive and irrational. If a government works for you why should you have to die for it, because your expected to do so and told enough times to do so, thats why.
A Nation's power needs to be measured somehow, so a standing army is created. They get bigger, a bigger army with less to do. More budget, Investors move in, More resources are needed to sustain the growing nation, they resort to imperialism. Soon they are raping foreign lands of its value, enslaving national populations to factory farms/mills, kill the resistance and line their pockets with the sales of missiles and MIGs. It's a business, and Halliburton is making a killing.

[Robocommie]

It's a bit misleading to think of war itself as profitable, it can be, and most certainly is to a certain group of capitalists, but most wars throughout history have been the clashing of one society's ruling class against another's. Politics is and has always been about how our limited resources are distributed and to whom, and war is, to quote von Clausewitz, politics continued by other means.

That's a gross oversimplification, but the long, and proper answer to why war happens could fill a book.

[Tiktaalik]

Military-industrial complex. Google it.

They make money off of weapons manufacturing. Speculators and multinationals make money from the resources gained by invading a country.

Wars are the health of the state - they keep the populace reminded of the so-called necessity for its existence, every state regardless of who it is and whether you think its good or not, has some type of enemy to make the population afraid. It is much easier to have people swear allegiance to a state during times of war.

[Leaf]

I think the specific reasons also explain it
eg to obtain control of the oil in Iraq.

It's imperialism.

In WWI it was just the biggest nations and ruling classes fightig over colonies and control of the world really.


THere's certainly no good reason for it.

[Axle]

Capitalists sometimes don't conduct war for immediate profit from war industries or the like...sometimes they wage war to get control natural resources they can profit from and control regions that represent strategic trading and economic positions they can wrest a profit out of.

[the last donut of the night]

War can also be used as a way to kill internal dissent. How many people were considered too controversial for criticizing the US's actions right after 9/11? Governments use it, with propaganda, to fool its citizens and to kill dissent.

Also remember that every penny that goes to the military-industrial complex, or the army budget, will never go to deficit-ridden education, public transportation, or healthcare budgets (actually, the US doesn't even have a budget for healthcare).

[Crusade]

Military Industrial complex. The dark side of capitalism is the gigantic hole in it that allows you to profit from death, crime, and disease. There's the rule of supply and demand that capitalists yap about all the time, but sometimes they get mad that what they're making isn't in demand and they do something to create that demand, like starting illegal wars. It's basically like the mafia shooting up a laundromat just so it'd pay for "protection". It's basic extortion.

[Belisarius]

it's not just that there are profits to gain from war (either on the market or in resources), but also that creating a universal enemy keeps everyone quiet and content. no one will criticize the state if it wages a war against the Enemy. in this case we praise the state and feel all patriotic about it. As Orwell said:" War is peace". Stress is laid on external conflict to mask the internal conflict.

[AK]

it's not just that there are profits to gain from war (either on the market or in resources), but also that creating a universal enemy keeps everyone quiet and content. no one will criticize the state if it wages a war against the Enemy. in this case we praise the state and feel all patriotic about it. As Orwell said:" War is peace". Stress is laid on external conflict to mask the internal conflict.
For example, the "war on terrorism". It basically goes along the lines of: "Defend Your Country From Teh Evil Islamic Threat!1!!!!"
The governments spend huge amounts of money on "national security" precautions (such as the 50 trillion new types of airport body scanning machines) and propaganda campaigns in order to hype up the masses and scare them shitless about "the very real terrorist threat"; in the process of doing so it also stresses nationalism, which is a system intertwined with capitalism. 9/11 seemed to be the perfect trigger for such a new wave of nationalism and patriotic support for the state and it's foreign incursions.