Military Cancer

We could express our reservations about the language and sentiments of "our"" nation and "our" tax dollars but nevertheless this video highlights the cost of capitalism's war economy.

There is a widespread tendency, shared by much of the Left, especially among people who think of themselves as Marxists to think that wars must be due to cynically rational calculations by capitalists. But this view sees “capitalism” as a unified actor issuing orders to obedient politicians on the basis of careful calculations. People who think that capitalists want wars to make profits should spend time observing the board of directors of any big corporation: capitalists need stability, not chaos, and the recent wars only bring more chaos. American capitalists are making fortunes in China and Vietnam now that there is peace between the U.S. and those countries, which was not possible during hostilities. War, however, is an unintended consequence of capitalist competition.

Man is by nature a gregarious and friendly animal. He does not make war because he dislikes others of his own species, differing from him in language, religion, geographical location, etc. His wars have always arisen out of struggles over the very material things of wealth and power. This is true, whether he has been living in a tribal, slave, feudal or capitalist economy, and whether he has obscured the true cause of his wars with an intense religious garb or with slogans about making the world safe for democracy. In a society in which there is no private property in industry and land, in which no exploitation of the workers takes place and where plenty is produced for all, there can be no grounds for war. The interests of a socialist society are fundamentally opposed to the murderous and unnatural struggle of international war.

Under capitalism the workers can perhaps on occasion check the development of war. By the threat of disobedience they can, for a time, force the capitalists to hold in leash their dogs of war.  But pressure from the workers can only delay the war, not stop it permanently. The irresistible and incurable antagonisms of the capitalist countries inevitably force them into war.  Only the  revolution itself can solve these war-breeding contradictions and put a final end to war. Not christianity but socialism will bring peace on earth.