AboutTom Expertise While it is a huge topic, I am well-versed in World War II generally. There is a huge wealth of information available on the internet, HOWEVER, one has to know the trash from the gems. Many sites which are not obviously credible (govt, university, and museum sites, for ex.), provide erroneous information (intentionally or otherwise).
Experience BA in history, and been reading and studying WW2 as my 'hobby' for 30 years. Regular contributor to several online forums in military history, WW2, and related areas and topics.
Organizations None relevant to this topic.
Education/Credentials BA, History (Secondary Education), with minor in Geography
US Army Engineer Officer (Officer Basic and Advanced Courses)
Expert: Tom Date: 5/28/2007 Subject: Causes, Practices and Effects of War
Question Hi Tom. I have an upcoming school essay in a few days. The essay is going to ask me about the causes, practices and effects of war and also to compare war from 2 different regions, Asia and Europe. Can you give me a favour? Thanks very much. I appreciate it
Answer This is a VERY broad question, at least without being in your class to know what the teacher is seeking, etc.
Still, here's some possible useful info or thoughts:
War:
* Causes - lots of causes, and sometimes it depends on how you define it, or emphasize it. Example: US war on Iraq. There are solid arguments to be made that the causes of this war were (and these are not mutually exclusive, either)
~ UN resolutions being violated
~ Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programs
~ Threat (real or imagined) of Iraq/Saddam to the Gulf, or to Israel
~ Desire of some in US to remake Iraq into a model democracy for the Muslim world
~ Logical step in the war on terror
~ Revenge for Saddam's attempted assassination of Bush, Senior.
~ Faulty intelligence that connected Saddam with al-Qaeda
~ Faulty intelligence that showed WMD programs being developed in violation of UN directives.
So what is the cause of war? Pride, greed, contest for resources (land, water, oil, etc.), political clashes (including ideological clashes such as fascism/Nazism vs. communism). When Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982, it was partially to distract the populace of Argentina from all the domestic troubles.
* Practices - not sure what is sought here. There are different types of wars - limited war (Vietnam, Iraq), and unlimited (WW2, 30 years war). There are guerrilla wars (like we're fighting now in Iraq and Afghanistan), and conventional wars (like WW1 and WW2), though most wars have some elements of both (Iraq war started conventionally, then turned guerrilla).
* Effects - wow, what isn't effected by war? Take our current Iraq war: Iraq itself is being torn apart socially, politically, economically. There is the damage to the nation's infrastructure (from air attacks at start of war, to the guerrilla's random mortar fire). We are financing the war with borrowed money (deficit spending), and are buying a lot of war materials that give jobs back home. Politically, the US is torn over this war, and the last Congressional elections showed the trend against the war. Diplomatically, we went to war against the advice of many of our allies (Germany and France and Canada are close allies and were opposed publicly as well as privately). The UN refuses to acknowledge that they authorized war, and they won't support us in it now.
Compare war from 2 different regions? I'm not sure what to answer on that. There are different traditions (for example, the big name in military theory in west is Karl von Clauswitz; in Asia it is the Chinese Sun Tzu).
But I don't know for sure what to say here.
