>
> That costly and protracted wars with high levels of casualties tend
> to destablize all states involved, heightening social contradictions
> & bringing down some regimes, is a matter of historical knowledge
> (Cf. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War), independent of our ethical
> preferences. How you make use of such historical knowledge
> politically is up to you. BTW, there is another possibility that I
> have not mentioned in my post that you condemn:
>
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Historical knowledge is never independent of all agents ethical
preferences; indeed alot of history is made as a result of agents
ethical preferences. The independence assumption of 'historical
methods' is too problematic to be of use at this juncture.
Ian