In those thousands of years, just about everything that anyone can think of has been tried, probably, and war is still with us. I think that the basic problem is that there are too many people who are willing to engage in this practice for one reason or another, and too few who want to opt out of it entirely. There is always a good-seeming reason for waging a war, it seems.
Slavery ended (for the most part at least -- it's still hanging on in a few places) primarily for economic reasons. When will war become uneconomical? Not very soon, I'm afraid.
It is true that the Vietnam War didn't end until after much of the "mass" movement against it ran out of steam, but I don't think that means that that movement was useless. As even Chuck points out, resistance inside the military was crucial to the Pentagon throwing in the towel, and I would add that the collapse of the draft system (so many guys were just ignoring their "greetings from the President" after a while that the FBI just couldn't track them down) also played a big part in ending the war. Both of those processes were started and supported by the anti-war movement, I believe. So it could be argued that the end of the war was a delayed result of anti-war actions in previous years; it just takes a while for the effects of such actions to appear.
The problem these days is that the wars the Pentagon wages seem to be too short for a strong movement a la the anti-Vietnam-War movement to really get rolling. Plus, of course, the fact that, unfortunately, what tends to turn most Americans against a war is increasing numbers of body bags coming back to Dover -- one of the most important factors influencing public opinion in the case of the Vietnam War. It's very sad and regrettable that the anti-war movement has to (secretly, of course) root for high casualties among the troops, but there you are. War is a damned hard institution to get rid of.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org ______________________________
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive: They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; They are the books, the arts, the academes, That show, contain, and nourish all the world; Else none at all in aught proves excellent. (Love's Labour's Lost)