Would it be wise to invest as much time, energy and money on prevention of war as we invest on preparation for war?

War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
Thomas Mann (1875 – 1955)

I think it would be wise to put aside some funds to educate our children about other countries and their beliefs and cultures. If we somehow could see each person as part of the human race then maybe we would value life more but it can not be just one country who holds these beliefs it will have to be a collection of men and women through out the world truly determined to live in harmony. Which means that war itself would have to be outlawed.

The reason why I would want some of the money to go into education is because it is always the young men and woman who fight most of the wars in the world. The average age of death in Vietnam for an American soldier was 19 years old. The average death in Iraq is 30 years old. http://www.americablog.com/2005/10/whats-average-age-of-2000-us-soldiers.html.

Through education maybe we could find a better way to communicate with our neighbors across the sea and not look at them as a threat to our own prosperity.

I have to add there may always be some bad guys in the world who only understand force and will have to be dealt with accordingly.

It sad to say but I don’t believe spending will stop war. Wars have been going on sense the begin of mankind.We’ve started wars over the simplest things. Wars start over a country just wanting to flex it’s muscle and show the world what they have,or don’t have.Wars are started over religion or ethnic back ground. I’m not sure how or where you would spend the money to stop this Spending it towards peace alone I don’t believe will work..In one way we did spend trillions of dollars for peace. The Cold War was fought building or military and our nuclear arsenal trying to out build the USSR. It was a battle over who had the most.Strangely we built enough weapons to destroy the world 100’s of times over.Finally in the 80’s we out spent the USSR and bankrupt their government.I grew up during the 60’s and 70’s.I have realized that even with the threat of nuclear war the world was a better place.Our will to compete is gone. The Olympics were once a show case of what each we and the communist country had to offer. The world watched to see who would come out the winner.Our space program came about because of our need to beat the USSR to the moon. It gave us a purpose to use our minds and create what might have never of been created.Today with the falling apart of the USSR we have no one to compete against. .Or pride and our economies are gone. Terrorism threatens the word because countries fell apart and have no single government to control them.Most people would say I’m nuts but I’ll take the USSR back.

Yes, it is very wise. Look at the European Union. It’s the largest war prevention project in the history of humankind. And it has made most people rich at the same time.

Do you think somebody of power who has decided to go to war would listen?

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld didn’t listen, I’m afraid.

@mattbrowne Great example! So for this question, I am afraid I would say that would probably be a wast of time and money.

War has been around for thousands of years and will be around untill we destrot the arth totally. If we are not prepared some other country will just take us over like they tried in kuwait.

If more people would realize that our military budget is called “defense” for a good reason, they would see that the emphasis is on peace (with above noted exceptions)and we have absolutely no control over what other countries choose to do. The Boy Scouts are right about one thing – Be Prepared!

It is worth trying. The arts of peace – who coined that phrase? – tend to lengthen lives.

prevention is cheaper and easier than going back and fixing the same goddamn problems over and over. so i’d say yes.