""I predict that the incidence of war will decline," he told me in 1996, two years before his death. He based his prediction on the principle that there is less and less to be gained economically from war. As people get richer and smarter, their lives and their knowledge become far more valuable than the land, minerals and natural resources they used to fight over.""
It has nothing to do with getting richer and smarter. It has more to do with free, democratic societies.
Anyone else see that this prediction was after the fall of the Soviet Union? Truth is the Soviet Union got poorer. So if you remove the source of most of the trouble by changing its government into something more democratic and free, wars go down in number. So if we remove the source of the current trouble....
The war in Iraq makes all the sense in the world. Remove the problem, do not let it become a larger problem.
Iraq is not the only problem. The problem is all dictators and monarchs who give no voice to the people and no hope for their future.
Freedom is the way. President Bush has it right and people owe it to themselves study Bush's Liberty Doctrine. He first outlined much of it here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020601-3.html
President Bush Delivers Graduation Speech at West Point
It was fleshed out in more detail here.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html
The National Security Strategy of the United States of America
Few understood the far reaching effects the Monroe Doctrine would have until much later on. FReepers can study the Liberty Doctrine now, and better understand this history in the making.