What is War?

Dictionary.com defines war as, “a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air.” Simply put, that IS war. Battles in war can even be amazingly unpredicted. For example, the War of 1812, which was fought over the course of about three years, was fought between the British and the Americans. The Americans only had 12 frigates, whereas the British had about 400. Any ship-to-ship battle nearly always resulted in American victory. Even though the Americans seemed like the underdogs, they were able to hold up and fight and win. War doesn’t always mean the bigger, stronger force comes out on top.

It is untrue that all violent conflicts amount to war, because violent conflicts can occur on a smaller scale that could end up getting resolved in ways other than armed fights. Stereotypical wars where one would think of fully equipped fighters obviously cannot be fought without direct contact. Considering that the definition of war states that the battle is fought with arms, to have a war wouldn't that mean there must be direct contact? It is certainly possible that a war could have catalyzed over an idea, though I have not been able to research any occurance that supports that, so I hypothesize it could but hasn't. However, I can't really give any definite answer. War fought in direct contact is happening currently. The most popular definition of war to our generation is the war in Iraq. There are constantly new articles being posted about updates on the war, that it was hard to choose one. However, I found some on CNN dating back to 2003, when Bush was the president. "We pledge that we will confront the invaders," Bush said in the article about the U.S. launching cruise missiles at Saddam. Confronting the invaders is an exact example of what one would consider direct contact.

So when we were younger and being taught about the world, the infamous phrase used is usually something along the lines of, "Everyone is different, not one person anywhere else in the world is exactly the same as you." If this is so true, not everyone will ever agree on the same things, and no one will ever have the same beliefs of opinions as another. Even though war is ridiculously dangerous, expensive, and creates uproar in the lives of many innocent people, it has become something that, basically, must be accepted. War has been a part of life on earth for many, many years, and will continue to be, especially now that technology is becoming much more advanced. There are plenty of people who will disagree, but to me, war is inevitable.



“U.S. launching cruise missiles at Saddam “ http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/19/sprj.irq.main/
“The War of 1812; What and Why?” http://www.angelfire.com/fl2/htf/1812historydir/warof1812.html