Is War a necessary Evil?

War sweeps up countries and tears down civilizations, bringing health and economical catastrophe, leaving in its wake a trail of bloodshed and destruction. However, despite all this, a war is started to prevent a worse outcome. Sometimes it is to protect that which is precious to us. Sometimes it is started because there is no other alternative. In the end, war is still a necessity that helps to keep the world in order.

Not all wars can be prevented. War is necessary to resolve conflicts that cannot be stopped any other way. Some people say that through peace talks and negotiations, we can stop war from occurring and ultimately stop war. However this is not true, if you take for example the situation in Iraq. Iraq’s making of nuclear weapons are a threat to society. If Iraq were open to negotiations, it would have been possible to end the matter through peace talks and the like. However, since that was not the case, it was inevitable for war to occur. War was a last resort for peace, and despite efforts to try and come to an agreement, peace talks did not work. It is in our nature to want to solve things in the quickest possible way, with violence. As a result, war is completely necessary in this case.

Furthermore, war is not always to destroy and to eliminate. Sometimes, war is started in order to prevent a worse outcome from occurring. The Libyan war is one such example of war being for a more important cause; a cause of freedom of the Middle East. Gaddafi only wanted power over his country and the people, and did not care of their welfare, only pursuing his own agenda. In this case, negotiations were no longer able to be carried out because of the government’s greed for control, and war was the only option to free the people of Libya from the oppression. Peace talks were considered in order to try and save more people instead of going straight for war. However, if action was not taken, many more people would have suffered under the oppression of the Libyan government. Although a war takes away many people’s lives, and causes many others to suffer, a war is a justified one, allowing people to enjoy a better future. It is in these cases that war is for a greater good.

On the other hand, war is filled with death, injuries and the loss of many loved ones. Not just that, the country’s economy would suffer tremendously when war occurs in that country. Is the future of the country worth the death of so many people? Despite ending a war even, the infrastructure of the country would be down, and many funds and resources that would have been used for development would have been wasted on war supplies. Wars are destructive, disruptive and most of all, costly. If this is the price that we have to pay for a war to ensue, what is the point of a war then?

In conclusion, war is necessary as a last resort despite its destructive consequences. War is necessary in the case when there is no other choice but to wage war on another country for a greater cause.