Regardless of the rhetoric from naive, optimistic English majors and hippies, the well known Latin phrase from Flavius Vegetius “Si vis pacem, para bellum” or, in English, “If you want peace, prepare for war” will always remain true. Like a dark, dreary painting, trying to pursue the figurative light, peace will only lead you deeper into darkness. I can understand the appeal of world peace but it’s simply ridiculous and serves no purpose in the modern world.

Human beings as a whole have been waging war since we’ve been on Earth. It generally consisted of small-scale skirmishes and raids for supplies and we haven’t stopped fighting since. For instance, a cemetery in Nubia, Sudan, known as Cemetery 117, is filled with skeletons that are roughly between 12,000 and 14,000 years old. About 40% of the skeletons found in Cemetery 117 had projectile wounds without calluses around the holes where sharp objects, likely arrows and thrown spears, pierced their bones suggesting that their wounds were fatal and they in all likelihood bled out. But don’t despair, for this isn’t an entirely bad thing. Now I understand better than anyone Pindar’s mantra, “War is sweet to them that know it not”. I know full well war’s most sinister side but to solely focus on the bad would lead you astray. The country we currently stand on was founded through iron and blood; Napoleon ended the French Reign of Terror and brought France to the world stage through iron and blood, and we Americans today charge towards the reaching hands of the defenseless and defend those who cannot be, through iron and blood.

Those who say there is no use for a standing military and that there is no use for warfare as a whole are actually being quite selfish. To assume that the $600 billion defense budget America has goes to defending our lands is simply apocryphal. To further explain this point numbers are needed. The United States Navy is the only navy in the world with ten aircraft carriers (second place goes to Italy with just two carriers) and it’s clear why many would jump to the conclusion that that number is excessive. After all, there are only two bodies of water surrounding this great nation, why should we have five times as many aircraft carriers as our second-place ally? The answer is simple. America is not a selfish country. We aren’t simply defending the Pacific and Atlantic oceans by our borders, we’re defending the Latin American and South American nations that touch our shared oceans; we stand for the seemingly endless amount of nations that touch the Mediterranean; we protect the countries on the continent of Africa that touch water, and we defend those who are defenseless in and around the Indian Ocean. America’s military might isn’t America’s, it’s the world’s.

Buck passing is a military science term in which countries assume that, since someone else will solve a problem, they don’t have to. Buck passing is what started World War II. Belgium figured France would stop German mobilization, France figured Britain could, Britain figured they could get Russia to intervene, and everyone figured anyone else could but no one would. America is the country that would. This is why we can’t have peace or lower our defense budget or do any number of things that many clamor for but few understand the repercussions of. As Otto von Bismarck wisely stated, “A conquering army on the border will not be stopped through eloquence.” We need war because negotiations are just words with no backing. War is the only solution to the problems of this world. Quite paradoxically, war is what saves lives, war is what brings peace, war is what ends suffering. To try to cut the means to wage war, i.e. America’s defense budget, you don’t only harm America, you harm the world. Fairness doesn’t matter in this world. Many would argue that it’s not fair that America is the world’s police but if we weren’t, then who else would prevent the world’s atrocities?

In humanity’s long history every generation has been completely different than the previous generation except in one way: Every generation has waged war. We have always waged war and we always will wage war, and this is in no way a sad truth. Words are simply not threatening enough to rely on in the face of impending darkness.