Why there isn't peace.

[Adrian II]

The United States has fought as an organized force in Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Kuwait, Panama and Iraq. We have fought or acted as a peacekeeping force in Eygpt, Somilia, Bosina and Kosovo. Then their is the dirty dealing in South America. Is this a society that is necessarily benefiting from Peace, or a society that is benefiting from peace within its borders and with its neighbors?

I am with Redleg on this one, and I would even go further.

The US benefits enormously from the wars it fought - from its war of independence and its Civil War right through two world wars, the countless hot or cold foreign wars and even the wars that ended so-so like Korea or Vietnam. I would say the benefits of war for the US have been far greater than the benefits of peace. And I would argue that the same applies, mutatis mutandis, to Europe, even if one takes the episode of 1933-1945 into account.

As for the relative peace enjoyed by both Europe and the US after WWII, we must acknowledge that it existed only because of the capacity for unlimited destruction, coupled with military forces that were armed to the teeth and partially on continuous stand-by since 1946 or 1947, as well as a society that lived in constant, though suppressed, fear of total annihilation. To call that 'peace' is stretching the meaning of the concept quite a bit.