[lbo-talk] War and Peace

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sun Apr 25 15:24:34 PDT 2004


Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Dennis Redmond wrote:
>
>>The oiligarchy is bent on returning to the 19th century, but its
> >paymasters are not. Three things make world wars exceedingly unlikely
> >today: (1) thermonuclear weapons, which ensure that noone would survive,
> >let alone win, (2) the cultural integration of the planet, via tourism,
> >the Web, the mass media, etc., and (3) the long-term interests of the
> >rising semiperipheries and metropoles are aligned.

This denial of the possibility of World War IV ignores the very real World War III (the so-called "cold war,"), the total casualties of which probably outnumbered WWs I & II combined. Whether likely or not, a World War IV (between, say, the EU and the U.S., each with its various allies) could have gone on for a decade or two, with casualties amounting to the millions (and corresponding property damage) before it was even formally recognized as a "war" of some sort.

By what universal law must all "wars" look the same?

Carrol



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