The fact of the matter is that war is a basic function of human societies, as much as food production or waste disposal. Unsurprisingly, it thus taps the ingenuities of the society in the same way as those other areas. It both benefits from ingenuities intended for other purposes, and results in inventions itself that can be used for other purposes. And for better or worse, war is a great way to get the public to support R&D spending. DARPA could not be what it is without being a part of the DOD. See: http://tech.mit.edu/V114/N29/dod.29n.html, http://web.mit.edu/annualreports/pres07/12.00.pdf, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge.
And let's face it, its something you benefit from tremendously. You do not want a society in which the US does not have the power to kill everyone. That is a society in which your lifestyle is not as nice as it is now. Indeed, with the challenges we face in the coming century (oil, water scarcity, etc) as well as the ascension of India and China as world powers, our ability to kill people is going to be more important than ever.
> The fact of the matter is that war is a basic function of human societies, as much as food production or waste disposal.
That makes me sad. Does anyone on HN(besides me) believe that one day humans will be able to rid themselves of war? That one day we'd find a solution to these issues that don't involve sending a group of armed people to kill?
I'm sure people do, but they're wrong. There are always situations in which the use of force is rationally self interested. As such, as long as those situations exist, a rational people will maintain and use war capability. Asking people not to go to war is asking them to put emotion (empathy) above rationality. You can do it to a degree, but only to an extent.
Indeed, US hegemony is good for peace. You can eliminate the rational self interest in going to war by imposing an external cost to going to war (like any negative externality). That's the role the US serves. Its military machine implicitly backs things like international sanctions that are punishment for anti-social behavior.
And let's face it, its something you benefit from tremendously. You do not want a society in which the US does not have the power to kill everyone. That is a society in which your lifestyle is not as nice as it is now. Indeed, with the challenges we face in the coming century (oil, water scarcity, etc) as well as the ascension of India and China as world powers, our ability to kill people is going to be more important than ever.