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Essays About War: Top 5 Examples and 5 Prompts

War is atrocious and there is an almost universal rule that we should be prevented; if you are writing essays about war, read our helpful guide.

Throughout history, war has driven human progress. It has led to the dissolution of oppressive regimes and the founding of new democratic countries. There is no doubt that the world would not be as it is without the many wars waged in the past.

War is waged to achieve a nation or organization’s goals, but what is the actual cost of progress? War has taken, and continues to take, countless lives. It is and is very costly in terms of resources as well. From the American Revolution to World Wars I and II to the Crusades and Hundred Years’ War of antiquity, wars throughout history have been bloody, brutal, and disastrous. 

If you are writing essays about war, look at our top essay examples below.

1. War Is Not Part of Human Nature by R. Brian Ferguson

2. essay on war and peace (author unknown), 3. the impacts of war on global health by sarah moore.

  • 4.  The Psychosocial Impacts of War and Armed Conflict on Children by Iman Farajallah, Omar Reda, H. Steven Moffic, John R. Peteet, and Ahmed Hankir

5. ​​Is war a pre-requisite for peace? by Anna Cleary

5 prompts for essays about war, 1. is war justified, 2. why do countries go to war, 3. the effects of war, 4. moral and ethical issues concerning war, 5. reflecting on a historical war.

“Debate over war and human nature will not soon be resolved. The idea that intensive, high-casualty violence was ubiquitous throughout prehistory has many backers. It has cultural resonance for those who are sure that we as a species naturally tilt toward war. As my mother would say: “Just look at history!” But doves have the upper hand when all the evidence is considered. Broadly, early finds provide little if any evidence suggesting war was a fact of life.”

Ferguson disputes the popular belief that war is inherent to human nature, as evidenced by archaeological discoveries. Many archaeologists use the very same evidence to support the opposing view. Evidence reveals many instances where war was waged, but not fought. In the minds of Ferguson and many others, humanity may be predisposed to conflict and violence, but not war, as many believe. 

“It also appears that if peace were to continue for a long period, people would become sick of the monotony of life and would seek war for a changed man is a highly dynamic creature and it seems that he cannot remain contented merely with works of peace-the cultivation of arts, the development of material comforts, the extension of knowledge, the means and appliances of a happy life.”

This essay provides an interesting perspective on war; other than the typical motivations for war, such as the desire to achieve one’s goals; the author writes that war disrupts the monotony of peace and gives participants a sense of excitement and uncertainty. In addition, it instills the spirit of heroism and bravery in people. However, the author does not dispute that war is evil and should be avoided as much as possible. 

“War forces people to flee their homes in search of safety, with the latest figures from the UN estimating that around 70 million people are currently displaced due to war. This displacement can be incredibly detrimental to health, with no safe and consistent place to sleep, wash, and shelter from the elements. It also removes a regular source of food and proper nutrition. As well as impacting physical health, war adversely affects the mental health of both those actively involved in conflict and civilians.”

Moore discusses the side effects that war has on civilians. For example, it diverts resources used on poverty alleviation and infrastructure towards fighting. It also displaces civilians when their homes are destroyed, reduces access to food, water, and sanitation, and can significantly impact mental health, among many other effects. 

4.   The Psychosocial Impacts of War and Armed Conflict on Children by Iman Farajallah, Omar Reda, H. Steven Moffic, John R. Peteet, and Ahmed Hankir

“The damage done by war-related trauma can never be undone. We can, however, help reduce its long-term impacts, which can span generations. When we reach within ourselves to discover our humanity, it allows us to reach out to the innocent children and remind them of their resilience and beauty. Trauma can make or break us as individuals, families, and communities.”

In their essay, the authors explain how war can affect children. Children living in war-torn areas expectedly witness a lot of violence, including the killings of their loved ones. This may lead to the inability to sleep properly, difficulty performing daily functions, and a speech impediment. The authors write that trauma cannot be undone and can ruin a child’s life.  

“The sociologist Charles Tilly has argued that war and the nation state are inextricably linked. War has been crucial for the formation of the nation state, and remains crucial for its continuation. Anthony Giddens similarly views a link between the internal pacification of states and their external violence. It may be that, if we want a durable peace, a peace built on something other than war, we need to consider how to construct societies based on something other than the nation state and its monopoly of violence.”

This essay discusses the irony that war is waged to achieve peace. Many justify war and believe it is inevitable, as the world seems to balance out an era of peace with another war. However, others advocate for total pacifism. Even in relatively peaceful times, organizations and countries have been carrying out “shadow wars” or engaging in conflict without necessarily going into outright war. Cleary cites arguments made that for peace to indeed exist by itself, societies must not be built on the war in the first place. 

Many believe that war is justified by providing a means to peace and prosperity. Do you agree with this statement? If so, to what extent? What would you consider “too much” for war to be unjustified? In your essay, respond to these questions and reflect on the nature and morality of war. 

Wars throughout history have been waged for various reasons, including geographical domination, and disagreement over cultural and religious beliefs. In your essay, discuss some of the reasons different countries go to war, you can look into the belief systems that cause disagreements, oppression of people, and leaders’ desire to conquer geographical land. For an interesting essay, look to history and the reasons why major wars such as WWI and WWII occurred.

Essays about war: The effects of war

In this essay, you can write about war’s effects on participating countries. You can focus on the impact of war on specific sectors, such as healthcare or the economy. In your mind, do they outweigh the benefits? Discuss the positive and negative effects of war in your essay. To create an argumentative essay, you can pick a stance if you are for or against war. Then, argue your case and show how its effects are positive, negative, or both.

Many issues arise when waging war, such as the treatment of civilians as “collateral damage,” keeping secrets from the public, and torturing prisoners. For your essay, choose an issue that may arise when fighting a war and determine whether or not it is genuinely “unforgivable” or “unacceptable.” Are there instances where it is justified? Be sure to examples where this issue has arisen before.

Humans have fought countless wars throughout history. Choose one significant war and briefly explain its causes, major events, and effects. Conduct thorough research into the period of war and the political, social, and economic effects occurred. Discuss these points for a compelling cause and effect essay.

For help with this topic, read our guide explaining “what is persuasive writing ?”If you still need help, our guide to grammar and punctuation explains more.

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Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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Home Essay Samples

Essay Samples on War

People always see the subject of war differently, yet it always comes down to the loss, destruction, and the political powers at play. Writing about this topic is never easy unless you are taking a historical approach and explaining the events that have taken place a long time ago. Nevertheless, it’s still challenging to provide reasoning and work with the chronology of specific events. See our war essay examples that address both modern and old-time events that are related to the armed conflicts and the famous battles in American history. Depending on your essay prompt, you should take a closer look at the structure and see how to narrow your ideas down to keep things concise. Check the dates twice and always start with the past by moving towards the future as you offer analysis and explanations. An essay about war shouldn’t be biased as your purpose is to research and explain the facts the way you can, based on evidence. If you are writing a personal or a reflective essay on war, you can provide your thoughts and turn to philosophical aspects of the issue. Check twice with an academic advisor to ensure that you’re on the right track.

The Cold War: A Comprehensive Examination (DBQ)

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Ronald Reagan and the Cold War: A Transformational Era

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NATO, the Cold War, and Civil Rights: Struggles and Achievements

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Women In Combat: Inclusion Of Women In The Selective Service

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Comparison And Contrast Of World War I And World War Ii

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essay about a war

How to Write War Essay: Russia Ukraine War

essay about a war

Understanding the Purpose and Scope of a War Essay

A condition of armed conflict between nations or between groups living in one nation is known as war. Sounds not like much fun, does it? Well, conflicts have been a part of human history for thousands of years, and as industry and technology have developed, they have grown more devastating. As awful as it might seem, a war typically occurs between a country or group of countries against a rival country to attain a goal through force. Civil and revolutionary wars are examples of internal conflicts that can occur inside a nation.

Your history class could ask you to write a war essay, or you might be personally interested in learning more about conflicts, in which case you might want to learn how to write an academic essay about war. In any scenario, we have gathered valuable guidance on how to organize war essays. Let's first examine the potential reasons for a conflict before moving on to the outline for a war essay.

  • Economic Gain - A country's desire to seize control of another country's resources frequently starts conflicts. Even when the proclaimed goal of a war is portrayed to the public as something more admirable, most wars have an economic motivation at their core, regardless of any other possible causes.
  • Territorial Gain - A nation may determine that it requires additional land for habitation, agriculture, or other uses. Additionally, the territory might serve as buffer zones between two violent foes.
  • Religion - Religious disputes can stem from extremely profound issues. They may go dormant for many years before suddenly resurfacing later.
  • Nationalism - In this sense, nationalism simply refers to the act of violently subjugating another country to demonstrate the country's superiority. This frequently manifests as an invasion.
  • Revenge - Warfare can frequently be motivated by the desire to punish, make up for, or simply exact revenge for perceived wrongdoing. Revenge has a connection to nationalism as well because when a nation has been wronged, its citizens are inspired by patriotism and zeal to take action.
  • Defensive War - In today's world, when military aggression is being questioned, governments will frequently claim that they are fighting in a solely protective manner against a rival or prospective aggressor and that their conflict is thus a 'just' conflict. These defensive conflicts may be especially contentious when conducted proactively, with the basic premise being that we are striking them before they strike us.

How to Write War Essay with a War Essay Outline

Just like in compare and contrast examples and any other forms of writing, an outline for a war essay assists you in organizing your research and creating a good flow. In general, you keep to the traditional three-part essay style, but you can adapt it as needed based on the length and criteria of your school. When planning your war paper, consider the following outline:

War Essay Outline

Introduction

  • Definition of war
  • Importance of studying wars
  • Thesis statement

Body Paragraphs

  • Causes of the War
  • Political reasons
  • Economic reasons
  • Social reasons
  • Historical reasons
  • Major Players in the War
  • Countries and their leaders
  • Military leaders
  • Allies and enemies
  • Strategies and Tactics
  • Military tactics and techniques
  • Strategic planning
  • Weapons and technology
  • Impact of the War
  • On the countries involved
  • On civilians and non-combatants
  • On the world as a whole
  • Summary of the main points
  • Final thoughts on the war
  • Suggestions for future research

If you found this outline template helpful, you can also use our physics help for further perfecting your academic assignments.

Begin With a Relevant Hook

A hook should be the focal point of the entire essay. A good hook for an essay on war can be an interesting statement, an emotional appeal, a thoughtful question, or a surprising fact or figure. It engages your audience and leaves them hungry for more information.

Follow Your Outline

An outline is the single most important organizational tool for essay writing. It allows the writer to visualize the overall structure of the essay and focus on the flow of information. The specifics of your outline depend on the type of essay you are writing. For example, some should focus on statistics and pure numbers, while others should dedicate more space to abstract arguments.

How to Discuss Tragedy, Loss, and Sentiment

War essays are particularly difficult to write because of the terrible nature of war. The life is destroyed, the loved ones lost, fighting, death, great many massacres and violence overwhelm, and hatred for the evil enemy, amongst other tragedies, make emotions run hot, which is why sensitivity is so important. Depending on the essay's purpose, there are different ways to deal with tragedy and sentiment.

The easiest one is to stick with objective data rather than deal with the personal experiences of those who may have been affected by these events. It can be hard to remain impartial, especially when writing about recent deaths and destruction. But it is your duty as a researcher to do so.

However, it’s not always possible to avoid these issues entirely. When you are forced to tackle them head-on, you should always be considerate and avoid passing swift and sweeping judgment.

Summing Up Your Writing

When you have finished presenting your case, you should finish it off with some sort of lesson it teaches us. Armed conflict is a major part of human nature yet. By analyzing the events that transpired, you should be able to make a compelling argument about the scale of the damage the war caused, as well as how to prevent it in the future.

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Popular War Essay Topics

When choosing a topic for an essay about war, it is best to begin with the most well-known conflicts because they are thoroughly recorded. These can include the Cold War or World War II. You might also choose current wars, such as the Syrian Civil War or the Russia and Ukraine war. Because they occur in the backdrop of your time and place, such occurrences may be simpler to grasp and research.

To help you decide which war to write about, we have compiled some facts about several conflicts that will help you get off to a strong start.

Reasons for a War

Russia Ukraine War

Russian President Vladimir Putin started the Russian invasion in the early hours of February 24 last year. According to him. the Ukrainian government had been committing genocide against Russian-speaking residents in the eastern Ukraine - Donbas region since 2014, calling the onslaught a 'special military operation.'

The Russian president further connected the assault to the NATO transatlantic military alliance commanded by the United States. He said the Russian military was determined to stop NATO from moving farther east and establishing a military presence in Ukraine, a part of the Soviet Union, until its fall in 1991.

All of Russia's justifications have been rejected by Ukraine and its ally Western Countries. Russia asserted its measures were defensive, while Ukraine declared an emergency and enacted martial law. According to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the administration's objective is not only to repel offensives but also to reclaim all Ukrainian land that the Russian Federation has taken, including Crimea.

Both sides of the conflict accuse the other of deploying indiscriminate force, which has resulted in many civilian deaths and displacements. According to current Ukraine news, due to the difficulty of counting the deceased due to ongoing combat, the death toll is likely far higher. In addition, countless Ukrainian refugees were compelled to leave their homeland in search of safety and stability abroad.

Diplomatic talks have been employed to try to end the Ukraine-Russia war. Several rounds of conversations have taken place in various places. However, the conflict is still raging as of April 2023, and there is no sign of a truce.

World War II

World War II raged from 1939 until 1945. Most of the world's superpowers took part in the conflict, fought between two military alliances headed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, and the Axis Powers, led by Germany, Italy, and Japan.

If you'd like to explore it more in-depth, consider using our history essay service for a World War 2 essay pdf sample!

After World War II, a persistent political conflict between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies became known as the Cold War. It's hard to say who was to blame for the cold war essay. American citizens have long harbored concerns about Soviet communism and expressed alarm over Joseph Stalin's brutal control of his own nation. On their side, the Soviets were angry at the Americans for delaying their participation in World War II, which led to the deaths of tens of millions of Russians, and for America's long-standing unwillingness to recognize the USSR as a genuine member of the world community.

Vietnam War

If you're thinking about writing the Vietnam War essay, you should know that it was a protracted military battle that lasted in Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. The North Vietnamese communist government fought South Vietnam and its main ally, the United States, in the lengthy, expensive, and contentious Vietnam War. The ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union exacerbated the issue. The Vietnam War claimed the lives of more than 3 million individuals, more than half of whom were Vietnamese civilians.

American Civil War

Consider writing an American Civil War essay where the Confederate States of America, a grouping of eleven southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860 and 1861, and the United States of America battled each other. If you're wondering what caused the civil war, you should know that the long-standing dispute about the legitimacy of slavery is largely responsible for how the war started.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

After over a century, the Israel-Palestine conflict has evolved into one of the most significant and current problems in the Middle East. A war that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people destroyed their homes and gave rise to terrorist organizations that still hold the region hostage. Simply described, it is a conflict between two groups of people for ownership of the same piece of land. One already resided there, while the other was compelled to immigrate to this country owing to rising antisemitism and later settled there. For Israelis and Palestinians alike, as well as for the larger area, the war continues to have substantial political, social, and economic repercussions.

The Syrian Civil War

Pro-democracy protests broke out in southern Deraa in March 2011 due to upheavals against oppressive leaders in neighboring nations. When the Syrian government employed lethal force to quell the unrest, widespread protests calling for the president's resignation broke out.

The country entered a civil war as the violence quickly increased. After hundreds of rebel organizations emerged, the fight quickly expanded beyond a confrontation between Syrians supporting or opposing Mr. Assad. Everyone believes a political solution is necessary, even though it doesn't seem like it will soon.

Russia-Ukraine War Essay Sample

With the Russian-Ukrainian war essay sample provided below from our paper writing experts, you can gain more insight into structuring a flawless paper.

Why is there a war between Russia and Ukraine?

Final Words

To understand our past and the present, we must study conflicts since they are a product of human nature and civilization. Our graduate essay writing service can produce any kind of essay you want, whether it is about World War II, the Cold War, or another conflict. Send us your specifications with your ' write my essay ' request, and let our skilled writers help you wow your professor!

Having Hard Time Writing on Wars?

From the causes and consequences of wars to the strategies and tactics used in battle, our team of expert writers can provide you with a high-quality essay!

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specializes in creating authoritative content on marketing, business, and finance, with a versatile ability to handle any essay type and dissertations. With a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a passion for social issues, her writing not only educates but also inspires action. On EssayPro blog, Annie delivers detailed guides and thought-provoking discussions on pressing economic and social topics. When not writing, she’s a guest speaker at various business seminars.

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The Ethics of War: Essays

The Ethics of War: Essays

The Ethics of War: Essays

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Some of the most basic assumptions of Just War theory have been dismantled in a barrage of criticism and analysis in the first dozen years of the twenty-first century. The Ethics of War continues and pushes past this trend. This anthology is an authoritative treatment of the ethics and law of war by eminent scholars who first challenged the orthodoxy of Just War theory, as well as by “second-wave” revisionists. The twelve original essays span both foundational and topical issues in the ethics of war, including an investigation of whether there is a “greater-good” obligation that parallels the canonical lesser evil justification in war, the conditions under which citizens can wage war against their own government, whether there is a limit to the number of combatants on the unjust side who can be permissibly killed, whether the justice of the cause for which combatants fight affects the moral permissibility of fighting, whether duress ever justifies killing in war, the role that collective liability plays in the ethics of war, whether targeted killing is morally and legally permissible, the morality of legal prohibitions on the use of indiscriminate weapons, the justification for the legal distinction between directly and indirectly harming civilians, whether human rights of unjust combatants are more prohibitive than have been thought, the moral categories and criteria needed to understand the proper justification for ending war, and the role of hope in the moral repair of combatants suffering from PTSD.

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War - Essay Examples And Topic Ideas For Free

War, as a recurring and devastating aspect of human history, presents a vast array of topics for discussion. Essays on war could delve into the myriad causes of war, from political and territorial disputes to economic interests and ideological differences. The discourse might extend to the examination of warfare through different historical epochs, exploring how technological advancements have shaped the strategies, tactics, and outcomes of wars. The impact of war on societies, economies, and cultures could also be a significant area of discussion, alongside the psychological and human costs borne by individuals and communities. Moreover, essays could delve into the efforts towards conflict resolution, peacekeeping, and the examination of international laws governing warfare. The ethical dimensions of war, the notion of just war, and the contemporary debates surrounding military interventions and arms races could also provide a rich framework for discussion and analysis. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about War you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Aftershock: Beyond the Civil War Summary

Aftershock: Beyond the Civil War is a documentary aired on history channel on TV. The movie was directed by David Padrusch in the year 2006. The documentary is segmented into various series that describe the history of the time of the civil war in America. During that time, there was a deadly conflict between various races represented in America. The southern part of America was experiencing angry rebellion from the people. The Aftershock documentary is mainly focused on broadcasting the […]

The Profession of Nursing during World War II

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Political Problem

The rapid development of the modern world in regards to political growth and independence has resulted in political problems and particular political terrorism and state-sponsored violence. Nations together with their governments are faced with security problems caused by the nuclear proliferation leading to misuse of this materials through wars and violence and terrorism. State-sponsored terrorism occurs when government regime forces or oppresses the minority group. Terrorism is the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror to […]

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Causes and Effects of World War II

World War II, in terms of casualties and actual material destruction, was the most devastating war in human history. It cost a lot of countries a lot of money, a lot of soldiers, and much more. Economies crashed, governments crumbled, and some would even say that for the countries in the Axis Coalition, that they were in worse shape after World War II then they were during the Great Depression World War II left destruction in many countries, but not […]

The Cold War: Severe Tension between the United States and the Soviet Union

The feuding began after World War II, mostly regarding political and economic power. After the destruction that World War II caused, the United States and the Soviet Union were left standing. Gaining control of countries was sought after, even if the countries weren't benefiting them in any way. During this time, it was all about power. From the years of 1957 to 1975, the Cold War was in full effect and the United States and the Soviet Union were in […]

Why did the Holocaust Happen?

Today, the problem of studying the Holocaust is the problem of the recognition of its uniqueness as a historical phenomenon of a universal scale. Before World War II, all conflicts in the history of genocide were based on religious conflicts: mass extermination of people took place on religious grounds. In the twentieth century, religious motives ceased to play a decisive role in determining the group identity of people. The Holocaust was one of the acts of mass destruction of people […]

The Sixties Civil Rights Movement Vs. Vietnam War

The 1960s were a very turbulent time for the United States of America. This period saw the expansion of the Vietnam War, the assassination of a beloved president, the civil rights and peace movements and the uprising of many of the world’s most influential leaders; known as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Over the years, scholars have discussed the correlation between the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. It has been argued that violence happening overseas directly […]

How Yellow Journalism Resulted to the Spanish-American War

How yellow journalism resulted to the Spanish-American war. The yellow journalism was started by Joseph Pulitzer in 1896 with a carton of yellow kid and sold many paper. It was characterized with emotional words, dramatic sympathy, false information and misleading headlines which had huge print to attract the attention of people. I had a lot of drawing, pictures and images. Now William Hearst the owner of New York stole the writers from Pulitzer to complete the yellow journalism (Wilkerson, 1932). […]

Democratic Peace Theory

After World War II, a known characteristic of affluent, liberal, democratic states is that they tend to not not engage in war with one another. The democratic peace theory attributes to this tendency to democracy itself, claiming that it is a key peacekeeper due to the obligatory culture of democracy to cooperate with the regime, both leaders and citizens for their own benefit. The capitalist peace theory justifies the maintenance of peace on the incentive of trade to maintain peace […]

Women in World War II

Many changes in the United States occurred with the start of World War II. These changes were heavily influenced by society, propaganda, and different kinds of advertising. One major change was the drastic shift of traditionally male jobs being taken over by women as a great number of men went off to fight in the war. This may seem like a step in the right direction for gender equality, but when the war concluded, women were expected to hand their […]

Cold War Effects on America

The Cold War certainly changed and shaped the American economy, society, and politics from 1945 to 1992. The contrasting beliefs between Communism (the Soviet Union) and Democracy (the United States) caused the rift between the worlds top two most prominent superpowers -- Communism had established itself to be an immediate challenge to the importance of the United States of America. To stop these two world powers from becoming an even larger global conflict, a few military interventions were established in […]

Abraham Lincoln and his Opponent

In the midst of the United States' western expansion, often known as manifest destiny, issues began to resurface that would change the destiny of the country for good. A union was on the verge of being completely split, and the election of 1860 was very important for the future of the nation. During the election of 1860, as well as the prior election, western expansion and slavery were topics that were at the forefront of campaigns. Abraham Lincoln and his […]

The Aftermath and Effects of World War II on the United States

Despite the overall ending of World War II, the effects of the war brought both positive and negative changes to the United States. These changes included different economic, political, and social aspects that transformed America into all that it is today, and whether or not these changes where positive or negative, both are truly important to the history of the United States of America. According to the textbook, some of the positive changes that World War II brought to the […]

The Allied Powers in World War II

The Allies defeated the Axis in World War II. The Axis were defeated because of various reasons. I believe the Axis lost the war because they were inexperienced and their actions throughout the war were not very smart. The Axis powers simply did not have enough supplies to compete with their enemy. The Allied forces have various supplies that gave them an advantage, things like rubber, cotton, nickel, and even oil. The Allied forces were involved with a lot of […]

World War II as the most Influential Events in History

World War II was one of the most influential events in world history. Not only did it shape the way the modern world works, it influenced the multitude of governments within it and changed the course of history. There was 16 allied nations fighting with 7 axis nations killing 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 people making it the deadliest conflict in human history. Nazi Germany had one of the biggest roles in WW2 because of many reasons. WW2 started on September 1, […]

Nursing in World War II

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Arsenal of Democracy – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Propaganda has been used as a weapon in war either to suppress enemies and hide next course of action or manipulate citizens so that they can support government decisions during times of war. Propaganda is simply used to alter or manipulate people's’ beliefs and attitudes towards a given subject. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms of propaganda and how it has been used successfully by leaders such as Hitler and George W. Bush to shape public opinion. In […]

World War i Vs World War II

World War I and World War II were very similar in many ways. Both began because of the clash of political ideologies. For example, there were imperialistic, nationalistic, and militaristic countries both involved in the wars. As they were similar, they also differ in a number of ways; none of the countries fighting in World War I had a dictator whereas World War II had multiple dictators from the same few countries. World War I and II also had differences […]

Comparing World War i and World War II

World War I was one of the greatest wars of all time. It was very hard times for the world, as people all around were constantly in fear of what could be their tomorrow. But it wasn't always this horrid, as certain events let to this point in history. Everyone surrounded by moods changing before, during, and after the Great War. The conflict between different countries led to what could've been an even greater disaster. Before World War I, the […]

The Nature of Crime during World War II

What if crime during wartime is viewed the same as crime in normal times? In Nazi Germany, crime during wartime is seen through a different lens in comparison to crime not during wartime. In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, Hitler is ruling the Germans with propaganda during World War II, around 1939-1945. During wartime, the nature of crime is atypical because of the circumstantial times that are brought upon them. Liesel and Rudy are only stealing when it is […]

Cold War: Sanctions and Effects Diplomatic Relations

Today, modern rhetoric prevents improvement between the United States and Russia, especially during the Trump administration. In terms of sanctions, the Cold War has never ended. Sanctions range from financial, economic, diplomatic, personal, and corporate, and seem to follow one after the other like a game of retaliation. The consequences of the evolving sanctions and the predicted likelihood of more sanctions between the United States and Russia are returning us to Cold War levels of tension; different but potentially just […]

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

Introduction The Bay of Pigs started with Cuba government placing strong ties to the United State bases in Cuba. United state was unhappy with the decision and it planed on attacking Cuba to pay back for their decision. Implementation of this ties took place United state expiries a great threat. This had a great impact on the history which had not experienced ties from any other country apart from Cuba as it currently was. President Dwight D approached Central Intelligence […]

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Rosie the Riveter wasn't only any lady; she was known to be a standout amongst the most notable individuals ever to speak to the work time and gambled herself for some other ladies.In the time of 1940-1945 the workforce expanded from 27% to 37% the same number of ladies chose to supplant men in the workspace. Numerous ladies chose to go into the protection ventures. In the time of 1943, the Unified States flying machine enlisted roughly 310,000 ladies.Rosie the […]

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Why the Bombing on Nagasaki was Necessary to End World War II?

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The Poverty Among Us

In our current society, poverty is an issue that plagues third world nations. All countries are interwoven with one another because of everyone needing each other for certain resources. When one country is in need, it interrupts a process that all countries have with one another. Poverty is an issue that everyone should pay attention to even if it does not occur where we live or does not affect us directly as much as it does other nations. Not only […]

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Essay on War and Its Effects

Students are often asked to write an essay on War and Its Effects in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on War and Its Effects

Introduction.

War is a state of armed conflict between different countries or groups within a country. It’s a destructive event that causes loss of life and property.

The Devastation of War

Wars cause immense destruction. Buildings, homes, and infrastructure are often destroyed, leaving people homeless. The loss of resources makes it hard to rebuild.

The human cost of war is huge. Many people lose their lives or get injured. Families are torn apart, and children often lose their parents.

Psychological Impact

War can cause severe psychological trauma. Soldiers and civilians may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

War has devastating effects on people and societies. It’s important to promote peace and understanding to prevent wars.

250 Words Essay on War and Its Effects

War, a term that evokes immediate images of destruction and death, has been a persistent feature of human history. The consequences are multifaceted, influencing not only the immediate physical realm but also the socio-economic and psychological aspects of society.

Physical Impact

The most direct and visible impact of war is the physical destruction. Infrastructure, homes, and natural resources are often destroyed, leading to a significant decline in the quality of life. Moreover, the loss of human lives is immeasurable, creating a vacuum in societies that is hard to fill.

Socio-Economic Consequences

War also has profound socio-economic effects. Economies are crippled as resources are diverted towards war efforts, leading to inflation, unemployment, and poverty. Social structures are disrupted, with families torn apart and communities displaced.

Psychological Effects

Perhaps the most enduring impact of war is psychological. The trauma of violence and loss can have long-term effects on mental health, leading to conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. Society at large also suffers, with the collective psyche marked by fear and mistrust.

In conclusion, war leaves an indelible mark on individuals and societies. Its effects are far-reaching and long-lasting, extending beyond the immediate physical destruction to touch every aspect of life. As we continue to study and understand these impacts, it underscores the importance of pursuing peace and conflict resolution.

500 Words Essay on War and Its Effects

War, an organized conflict between two or more groups, has been a part of human history for millennia. Its effects are profound and far-reaching, influencing political, social, and economic aspects of societies. Understanding the impact of war is crucial to comprehend the intricacies of global politics and human behavior.

The Political Impact of War

War significantly alters the political landscape of nations. It often leads to changes in leadership, shifts in power dynamics, and amendments in legal systems. For instance, World War II resulted in the downfall of fascist regimes in Germany and Italy, giving rise to democratic governments. However, war can also destabilize nations, creating power vacuums that may lead to further conflicts, as seen in the aftermath of the Iraq War.

Social Consequences of War

Societies bear the brunt of war’s destructive nature. The loss of life, displacement of people, and the psychological trauma inflicted upon populations are some of the direct social effects. Indirectly, war also affects societal structures and relationships. It can lead to changes in gender roles, as seen during World War I and II where women took on roles traditionally held by men, leading to significant shifts in gender dynamics.

Economic Ramifications of War

Economically, war can have both destructive and stimulating effects. On one hand, it leads to the destruction of infrastructure, depletion of resources, and interruption of trade. On the other, it can stimulate economic growth through increased production and technological advancements. The economic boom in the United States during and after World War II is an example of war-induced economic stimulation.

The Psychological Impact of War

War leaves a deep psychological imprint on those directly and indirectly involved. Soldiers and civilians alike suffer from conditions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Moreover, societies as a whole can experience collective trauma, impacting future generations. The psychological scars of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings continue to affect Japanese society today.

In conclusion, war is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon with profound effects that can shape nations and societies in significant ways. Its impacts are not confined to the battlefield but reach deep into the political, social, economic, and psychological fabric of societies. Therefore, understanding its effects is not only essential for historians and political scientists but also for anyone interested in the complexities of human societies and their evolution.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

  • Essay on Kargil War
  • Essay on Disadvantages of War
  • Essay on Consequences of War

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Essay on War - A nation or organisation may turn to war to reach its goals, but what is the actual cost of progress? Countless lives have been lost to war and continue to be lost. It costs a lot of money and resources as well. Wars have always been brutal, deadly, and tragic, from the American Revolution to World Wars I and II to the Crusades and the ancient Hundred Years' War. Here are a few sample essays on "war" .

War Essay

100 Words Essay on War

The greatest destroyers of people in modern times are wars. No matter who wins a war, mankind loses in every case. Millions of people have died in battles during the past century, with World Wars I and II being the worst. Wars are typically fought to protect a nation. Whatever the motive, it is hazardous conduct that results in the loss of millions of priceless innocent lives and has dangerous impacts that even future generations will have to deal with.

The results of using nuclear bombs are catastrophic. The weapons business benefits when there is a war elsewhere in the world because it maintains its supply chain. Weapons that cause massive destruction are being made bigger and better. The only way to end wars is to raise awareness among the general public.

200 Words Essay on War

Without a doubt, war is terrible, and the most devastating thing that can happen to humans. It causes death and devastation, illness and poverty, humiliation and destruction. To evaluate the devastation caused by war, one needs to consider the havoc that was wrecked on several nations not too many years ago. A particularly frightening ability of modern wars is that they tend to become global so that they may absorb the entire world. The fact that some people view war as a great and heroic adventure that brings out the best in people does not change the fact that it is a horrible tragedy.

This is more true now that atomic weapons will be used to fight a war. War, according to some, is required. Looking at the past reveals that war has drastically changed throughout the nation's history. The destructive impacts of war have never been more prevalent in human history. We have experienced lengthy and brief wars of various kinds. There have been supporters of nonviolence and the brotherhood of man. Buddha, Christ, and Mahatma Gandhi have all lived. Despite this, war has always been fought, weapons are always used, military power has always been deployed, and there have always been armies in war.

500 Words Essay on War

If we take a closer look at human history, it will become evident that conflicts have existed ever since the primitive eras. Although efforts have been made to end it, this has not been successful so far. Thus, it appears that we are unable to achieve eternal peace. Many defend wars by claiming that nature's rules require them. Charles Darwin is placed in front of them to illustrate their point. He was the one who created the rule of the fittest. He claimed that everything in nature, whether alive or dead, is constantly engaged in a battle for survival. Only the strongest will survive in this fight. Therefore, it is believed that without battle, humankind won't be able to progress.

Impacts of War

People fail to see that war invariably results in severe damage. They ignored the nonviolent principles taught by Mahatma Gandhi, who used them to liberate his country from the shackles of slavery. They fail to consider that if Gandhi could push out the powerful Britishers without resorting to violence, why shouldn't others do the same? Wars are unavoidable calamities, and there are no words to adequately depict the vast quantity and scope of their tragedies. The atrocities of the two world wars must never be forgotten. There was tremendous murder and property devastation during the battles. There were thousands of widows and orphans. War spreads falsehoods and creates hatred. People start acting brutally selfishly. Humanity and morals suffer as a result.

War is an Enemy

War is the enemy of all humanity and human civilisation. Nothing positive can come of it. Consequently, it should never be celebrated in any way. In addition to impeding national progress, it undermines social cohesion. It slows down the rate of human progress. Wars are not the answer to the world's issues. Instead, they cause issues and generate hatred among nations. War can settle one issue but creates far too many other ones. The two most horrific examples of the war's after-effects are Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People are still enduring the effects of war 77 years later. Whatever the reason for war, it always ends in the widespread loss of human life and property.

Disadvantages of War

Massive human deaths and injuries, the depletion of financial resources, environmental degradation, lost productivity, and long-term harm to military personnel are all drawbacks of war. Families are split apart by war. Both towns and cities are destroyed by it. People become more sensitive, and every industry faces collapse. People’s health declines physically and they lose their sense of security. They won't have any security, and those who win the battle will treat the citizens of the defeated nation as their slaves and prohibit them from the right to work. After the war, there will be a lack of jobs and corruption issues for the nation to deal with.

Russia – Ukraine War

The world saw great turmoil beginning in February 2022 with the Russian-Ukraine War. Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the most serious conventional attack on a nation, bringing a severe economic crisis to the world. India has taken a neutral stance for Russia, keeping in mind the two countries' long-standing alliance, especially in its foreign policies and positive international relationships. Russia was concerned about Ukraine's security due to its intention to join NATO and invaded Ukraine in 2014. Additionally, Russia provided help to the rebels in the eastern Ukrainian districts of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has had a substantial impact on oil prices and other commodity prices, as well as increased trade uncertainty. India has economic troubles due to Western countries' supply disruptions and limited trade with Russia.

War has historically been the worst mark on humanity. Although it was made by man, it is now beyond the power of any human force. To preserve humanity, the entire human species must now reflect on this. Otherwise, neither humanity nor war will survive.

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What Do I Owe the Dead of My Generation’s Mismanaged Wars?

An American soldier in fatigues stands in front of a makeshift wooden grave marker with a photo in a frame, combat boots, flags and a rifle with a helmet atop it in a barren stretch of land in Iraq.

By Phil Klay

Mr. Klay is a novelist and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War. His most recent book is the essay collection “Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War.”

About 10 years ago, as the war in Afghanistan was slowly, painfully winding down, I walked through Arlington National Cemetery with a fellow Marine veteran and a relative of mine visiting from Ireland. We passed row after row of pristine white tombs, the dead of all the just wars and unjust wars that made and remade this country, and my relative told us he found it quite moving; he hadn’t been expecting that. Perhaps he thought it’d be more bombastic, or obviously militaristic, and he was taken by the beauty and serenity and quiet dignity of the place.

So we brought him to Section 60 to see some of the newest graves, of kids born in the ’90s, and I told him the sight filled me with rage, these young lives thrown into a mismanaged war, where even their deaths, at that late stage, were mostly ignored. Just the background hum of a global superpower.

A couple of years later, in 2021, the Afghan war finally ended, taking with it a few American children of the 2000s, and, in a moral failure laid on top of the military failure, leaving tens of thousands of Afghans who worked with us at risk in the now completely Taliban-controlled country. The last Marines to fall died in a suicide bombing at a gate to Kabul’s airport, a blast that killed 11 Marines, one Navy medic, one soldier and about 170 Afghan civilians. The Marines were trying to manage the chaos of the poorly planned evacuation of Afghans from Kabul — a humanitarian mission at heart, trying to help those we were abandoning. A week before she died, one of the Marines, Sgt. Nicole Gee, posted a photo of her cradling a baby in Kabul and captioned it, “I love my job.”

America responded to those deaths with a drone strike against a Kabul vehicle the military claimed was transporting ISIS members who were about to carry out another attack, but that, in a twist that felt grotesquely emblematic of so many of our failures, turned out to carry an Afghan aid worker. The blast killed the aid worker and his relatives, seven of whom were children. The sort of people those Marines died trying to help.

How do you memorialize the dead of a failed war? At Arlington, it’s easy to let your heart swell with pride as you pass certain graves. Here are the heroes that ended slavery. Here are the patriots who defeated fascism. We think of them as inextricably bound up with the cause they gave their life to. The same can’t be said for more morally troubling wars, from the Philippines to Vietnam. And for the dead of my generation’s wars, for the dead I knew, the reasons they died sit awkwardly alongside the honor I owe them.

I watched a lot of Marines go off to Afghanistan, a war that I could have gone to but that I chose to avoid. Mostly, they were young. That’s the thing Hollywood most often gets wrong about war when they cast grown men to portray America’s finest killers. Look at a Marine infantry platoon, so many of whose members joined at 17 or 18, and you see boys. Boys who haven’t grown into cynicism yet. Some find it in the middle of their tours. Some keep that idealistic flame burning through multiple deployments. And some die before it can be extinguished.

For so many of the kids I saw, their mission mattered to them, and so their mission should matter to all of us when we remember their deaths. And the mission was a catastrophe. Memorial Day should come with sorrow and patriotic pride, yes, but also with a sense of shame. And, though it has faded for me over the years, with anger.

A few months after Kabul fell I went to the Bronx to see a war photographer I admire, Peter van Agtmael, taking a group of adult learners through a display of his photography from 9/11 to the present at the Bronx Documentary Center, photographs now collected in the book “ Look at the U.S.A. ”

“I just got back from Afghanistan, and it’s controversial to say, but it’s beautiful,” he told the group. “It’s beautiful to see Afghanistan at peace.”

Beautiful . I thought of a Marine in 2009, just back from Afghanistan, hollow-eyed, telling us in a monotone about his best friend taking a bullet to the head in these beautiful regions of the country, now at peace. What would he make of such a claim? Around me on the walls I saw a burned soldier in a combat hospital, the arm of a Trump supporter climbing over a wall by the Capitol on Jan. 6, the dust cloud of an improvised bomb detonation in Iraq.

Toward the end of the gallery, there was a huge print hung high up. You craned your neck and saw a homeless encampment in Las Vegas, and then, craning further, you saw an F-16 fighter jet, an aircraft that costs tens of millions of dollars, flying above. Amid our national forgetting of the wars, there was something powerful about seeing this accounting of America in the South Bronx, in a community whose struggles have so often been subject to forgetting, effacing, indifference. And, God, it was painful.

In the past when I’ve thought about the recent dead, I’ve told myself that service to country, service unto the point of death, is a momentous enough sacrifice to overshadow all other questions. The cause doesn’t matter so much if the fallen I knew served courageously, looked after their fellow Marines and kept their honor clean. But I’ve come to feel that airbrushing out the complexities of their wars is, ultimately, disrespectful to the dead. We owe it to the dead to remember what mattered to them, the ideals they held, as well as how those ideals were betrayed or failed to match reality.

This Memorial Day, as I get ready to take my sons to march in our local Memorial Day parade, our country is in the midst of the most divisive antiwar protests since the early days of the Iraq war, protests my friends characterize as either “objectively pro-Hamas” or as “opposing undeniable genocide.” Questions long dormant, about how we use our might and whom we help kill, feel like live political questions once again (even if we’re not talking much about actual American military deployments, or the troops who have most recently died at the hands of Iranian proxies). The debate is raw and angry.

Good. What a good, uncomfortable, painful national mood for remembering the dead. This year, when I remember them, I will not just remember who they were, the shreds of memory dredged up from past decades. I will remember why they died. All the reasons they died. Because they believed in America. Because America forgot about them. Because they were trying to force-feed a different way of life to people from a different country and culture. Because they wanted to look after their Marines. Because the mission was always hopeless. Because America could be a force for good in the world. Because Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden didn’t have much of a plan. Because it’s a dangerous world, and somebody’s got to do the killing. Because of college money. Because the Marine Corps is cool as hell. Because they saw “Full Metal Jacket” and wanted to be Joker. Or Animal Mother. Because the war might offer a new hope for Iraq, for Afghanistan. Because we earned others’ hatred, with our cruelty and indifference and carelessness and hubris. Because America was still worth dying for.

Phil Klay is a novelist and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War. His most recent book is the essay collection “ Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War .”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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essay about a war

War, Its Definition, History and Aspects Essay

Introduction, works cited.

I would like to write about war as a topic and this is because of various reasons. War has been with us for a long time and that is why this is a good topic that can be looked at in relation to the society’s needs. The prospective areas of war are wide and that is why this topic needs a good approach.

As far as narrowing down to this topic is concerned, I will look at all the aspects that revolve around war. I will first of all try to define law since different people have come up with their own arguments. This is because the first step towards understanding something is properly defining it.

In addition, I will also try to explain the history of war because it has been there for a long period of time. In this case, war can be traced back to early human beings meaning that it has been evolving as time goes by. This means that there are various aspects that have been incorporated to the whole aspect of war in relation to changes in technology.

Later on, I will narrow down on the general overview of war because people take different stands and positions on this topic. In this case, we have seen the effects of war in our society and this means that it is something real that can not be disputed.

Moral theories are very important because they help us to understand a given topic well. It should be known that moral theories help us to figure out what is good and what is bad. This means that there are certain actions that are not supposed to be entertained in the society.

Meta-ethics is a very important moral theory because it is widely applicable to this tropic. This is because it seeks to define various aspects like justice and others. As a matter of fact, there are people who do not know what is right and what is wrong as far as this topic is concerned.

In general, the most important moral theory that I will use in analyzing this topic is utilitarianism. This theory can tell us the costs and benefits of war which has been the most notable issue as far as the topic is concerned.

War comes after a given action has been undertaken and this means that it should be justified. As a matter of fact, this will justify the consequences of the action that we have taken.

War hams other people and this is what utilitarianism is all about because we should never benefit ourselves unfairly. This topic interests me because of various things. Every now and then, you will always hear that people are going to war because of various underlying reasons.

This is something that I would like to unearth because the society can not exist on war based on the negative effects that we have seen. As a matter of fact, this topic interests me because there is something that we can do as a society to avoid war.

Countries have violated international law that guides war and this is something that is supposed to be looked at. This means that it will be better if dialogue is enhanced before people can go to war as the last option. All in all, this is a very interesting topic that should be understood by everybody amongst us.

War is a broad aspect because it can be referred to as a conflict that might take different dimensions. In this case, it can be a state of being armed to propagate a conflict that can be either between countries or individual parties.

As far as war is concerned, there can be a lot of aggression or disruption that might be advanced by one party towards the other. War can also be described as a behavioral pattern that has been seen in many people and human beings as a whole.

It should be known that war like tendencies are always exhibited by almost all primates and this might also extend to other species (Wade 14). All in all, war is a very interesting topic because it is wide and thereby involves a lot of issues.

As a matter of fact, there are a lot of issues that need to be understood as far as war is concerned. This is based on the fact that we live in a diverse and unique society that is bound to have a lot of issues that will always need to be sorted out as time goes by.

As far as approaching this topic is concerned, there should be a lot of understanding for long term sustainability. This should be done by looking at all the issues that revolve around war and why people might go to war.

It is quite obvious that individuals, nations or societies can not go to war unless they have been provoked to do so. These are some of the issues that need to be understood because somebody’s rights must be infringed upon before he/she decides to go to war.

On the other hand, we have all experienced the consequences of war and that is why there must be efforts to stop war (Wade 23).

In this case, there is an implication that the society can not co-exist well with war and that is why we should come up with good solutions. This can be proved well from various negotiations that have been seen around the world to stop conflicts.

There are a lot of people who have borne the brunt of war in their societies meaning that they need attention. The society can never coexist well after war and that is why it is always necessary to embark on reconciliation. All these efforts are always aimed at ensuring that people do not go to war again.

In this case, all aspects of war are supposed to be understood by all stakeholders and the society at large. This will enable them to be prepared to deal with any issue that might revolve around war.

As a matter of fact, this is based on various prospective areas of war that people have occasionally misunderstood thereby propagating war in the society (Gat 56). In the long run, specific areas of war should be properly evaluated for long term sustainability by narrowing down on necessities.

It should be known that there are a lot of moral theories that revolve around war and this is something that the society needs to understand.

War can be either be actual or intentional based on what a given party wanted to achieve by engaging in it. This topic interests me a lot because war can be traced to our doorsteps. In this case, it can occur that we have once in our lifetime been engaged in war or led to it.

This does not necessarily mean that we must promote war but people do this without knowledge that they are actually agents of war. There are a lot of aspects that revolve around war because it is broad and this is something that interests me.

The society should be able to define war because fisticuffs that occur between individuals can not be termed and described as war (Gat 45). A gang fight can not be described and defined as war because there are certain aspects and things that can qualify a conflict to be called war.

This therefore mans that there are occasions where some misunderstandings have always been confused as war which might not be the case.

As usual, war will always be a phenomenon that can take a political twist. In this case, a country can not fight with its neighbor if there are no political undertones beneath. In the long run, this ends up as a conflict that occurs between political communities.

A political entity can be defined as a state or any community that seeks to be recognized as a state. There is some frequency by which war can occur but this will always depend on the underlying factors at a given period of time.

Terrorist organizations that have been responsible for war can also be referred to as political communities. This is because they are always composed of people with political reasons and missions that they want to achieve and accomplish (Fry 62).

All this withstanding, any mutual misunderstanding between these political communities should be looked at as signs of war in any way. This means that any conflict that is characterized by arms should be real and actual. In this case, it should not be merely latent because it will not qualify as war.

War can be aimed at ending the domination of one community over the other or better still to ensure that there is equality which has always been the bone of contention. There are various techniques that are used by individuals to advance war and this is called warfare.

In cases where we have war, communities or individuals are never ready to compromise until they attain what they had anticipated (Fry 48). This means that they are never ready for a relationship that will lead to fundamental equality in any way.

As far as all wars are concerned, domination has always been the reason for the community’s actions. In this case, it does imply that almost all wars are borne out of the need for domination. In a broad perspective, there is an individual who will occasionally wish to dominate over the other and this ultimately leads to war.

War is inescapable because we are bound to experience it every now and then as time goes by. This means that war can not in any case be linked to a given political organization because it is bound to be a universal phenomenon no matter how much we try to avoid it. In the long run, the society will always define war because it pays its wages.

War has been taking different dimensions based on various developments that have been seen. This means that there have been advancements as time goes by.

There are a lot of global alliances that have seen different nations align themselves with each other based on shared interests. In this case, war has a long history but technology has been infused in thereby making it more complex (Kelly 81).

As a matter of fact, this has ended up enhancing its destructiveness that was not there in the initial years. There are various motivations that lead people to war and this can only be understood by those who give orders.

Those who undertake war have never understood what they are fighting for because they are always given orders to go to war. As a matter of fact, a state can not go to war without support from its leaders and people. All this will be based on the three universal reasons that have occasionally motivated people to war.

This reasons can be either ideological, economical or for power and pride. There has been an argument that morality can justify the need for war but this is supposed to be well proven. All in all, the strategies and tactics for war have been changing as time goes by depending on technology (Wade 39).

As far as war is concerned, there are a lot of moral theories that are supposed to be understood. For instance, we have economic, Marxist, evolutionary psychology, demographic, behavioral, youth bulge and political science theories. As a matter of fact, all these theories try to explain the rationale behind war and why people, nations, sopcietes or states go to war.

As far as moral theories are concerned, there is always a morality for war. In this case, it is undeniable that war has been and will always be a source of the society’s moral questions. This means that concerns behind war need to be understood and evaluated because this has increased gradually as time goes by.

Due to modernization and globalization, the society does not seem to understand why people should continue going to war. Despite all this positive developments, there are people who are always ready to go to war at the slightest provocation and this should not be entertained.

For instance, there might be an argument that a country should be able to defend itself but this can be done diplomatically (Kelly 60). The justification for war is well elaborated by international law and this should not be violated by any nation or state whatsoever.

International law legitimizes war for defense and this is when a given nation or state has been attacked. This means that a nation can go to war and defend its borders either individually or with support from its allies. On the other hand, there are wars that can be allowed by the United Nations.

In this case, the Security Council can allow a given nation to go to war if there is necessity for it. There are enough laws that have been established to enhance the regulation of war as far as international relations are concerned. The conduct of war is very unique depending on people who are propagating it (Gat 97).

There is some uniformity and agreement that in war, there must be some form of confrontation. This confrontation can be done in various ways either by using weapons and equipments. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of tactics that are employed by individuals to suppress the enemy at all costs.

Individuals who are engaged in war behave in a unique way meaning that their behavior will always vary. There are occasions where troops have been engaged in bad activities in the name of war. For instance, there is a lot of rape and ethnic cleansing that has been reported in different places in the course of war.

The aftermath of war has been disastrous because of such activities. In this case, we are supposed to understand various types of warfare that the world is currently experiencing. We have conventional warfare where a given nation is only concerned with reducing its opponents’ military might (Fry 56).

Such wars have always revolved around chemical and nuclear weapons with an aim of ensuring that a state slows down on such activities. Another example of warfare is nuclear warfare. This is mostly characterized by the use of nuclear weapons that are always dangerous.

Civil war is the most common form of warfare that has been seen in the world today. In this case, the sides that are involved in the conflict are from one nation. These entities or groupings are only forced to go to war to control the nation’s destiny, independence or resources.

Asymmetric warfare can be described as a misunderstanding between two different and distinct populations. As much as these two populations might be having diverse capabilities they might use guerilla tactics to overcome each other (Kelly 74). Chemical warfare is the worst form of war that nations or states can engage themselves in because it has deadly effects.

All this aspects and approaches to war have been seen and manifested in our society in one way or the other and everything possible should be done to avoid such issues. War takes place in our environment and no matter how much we may try to avoid and ignore it, there will always be negative effects.

War is an interesting topic that requires a lot of analysis and understanding because there are many prospective areas.

Effects of war in the society can be seen everywhere and even the soldiers who participate in them are not immune in any way. As a matter of fact, a lot of soldiers have been killed in the course of war for it to be won. Civilians have suffered a lot because of war and this can be manifested from the depopulation that accompanies such activities.

People can not inhabit an area that has a lot of war and this means that they have to move to other places that are secure. Economies have been shattered and destroyed because of war depending on its nature (Fry 82). Nations have to spend money on the purchase of weapons and paying soldiers who go to war. In addition, destruction of economic activities will always accompany such activities and this is not good for prosperity.

As earlier noted, people go to war because of various reasons meaning that there is always bound to be a solution. In this case, there are no impossibilities as long as people commit themselves to find a long lasting solution to a given problem.

This means that events that lead to war are propagated by facts that either side might be having. Nations should not be encouraged to go to war because there is no need to loose life and property on something that can be solved amicably (Wade 47). There are occasions where individuals might come to a stalemate but there should be a ceasefire to end any hostilities that might continue.

Negotiations and dialogue should be encouraged over war based on the realities on the ground. There are occasions where dialogue might not be easy based on a loser and winner scenario but a middle ground can be settled on.

There are occasions where the winner in a given conflict or war might dictate the terms of settlement and engagement but this should not be imposed because it will be encouraging the resurgence of war. War can not be ruled out because the society has a lot of issues that will continually emerge as time goes by.

This means that mutual understanding should be encouraged by all members of the society to avoid any warlike activities. Sport activities have been identified as the best alternative to war because people can not shy away from it (Fry 97).

As a matter of fact, activities that bring people together to engage in positive activities should be encouraged around the world. The society can never coexist well after war and that is why it is always necessary to embark on reconciliation. All these efforts are always aimed at ensuring that people do not go to war again.

Fry, Douglas. The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence. London: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.

Gat, Azar. War in Human Civilization . London: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.

Kelly, Raymond. Warless Societies and the Origin of War . Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2000. Print.

Wade, Nicholas. Before the Dawn. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

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Is This Israel’s Forever War?

By Keith Gessen

A photo of an Israeli soldier walking through Gaza City outside of a hospital. There is a tank on his left.

Natasha Hall grew up in Arlington, Virginia, in the nineteen-eighties. Her mother, who was originally from Jordan, was an accountant at the World Bank; her father, who was a Vietnam War vet and marine biologist, worked at the Environmental Protection Agency. During the summers, they would sometimes visit her mother’s family in Jordan; in 1996, in the wake of the Oslo Accords, they were able to visit the West Bank. Hall, then thirteen, had heard about the territory’s occupation, but she was surprised by the obvious and quotidian restrictions on Palestinians’ lives. She remembers seeing people lined up at checkpoints with their hands on their heads, facing a wall. When the 9/11 attacks took place, she was in her first week of college. From what Hall already knew of the world, she immediately feared what the U.S. would do in response. She decided to study foreign policy. Shortly after graduating, she went to the Middle East and stayed there, on and off, for the next twenty years.

The foreign-policy world in Washington, D.C., is filled with people who have gone abroad and had a formative experience. Hall’s was the long American “war on terror.” In the late two-thousands, she worked for the RAND Corporation on evaluating reconstruction efforts in Iraq. (They were not going well.) In 2012, she took a job in government, travelling all over the world and interviewing refugees who wished to resettle in the U.S. But the process was slow, and, when it came to the conflict that had by then become her greatest area of focus, the Syrian civil war, the United States took so few people. She moved to Istanbul to work with Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, a volunteer organization that helped civilians caught up in Bashar al-Assad’s brutal counter-insurgency campaign. Hall saw people surviving in conditions in which survival seemed impossible. She saw what Western resources and preparation could and could not do. “Every time we would find a way to protect people, they”—the Syrian regime and its Russian backers—“would up the ante,” she told me. Russian fighter jets “were wiping out whole neighborhoods. Even if people had a basement to shelter in, the Syrian government might hit them with chlorine gas, smoking them out.” (Despite multiple reports from the United Nations and other organizations that Assad’s forces repeatedly used chemical weapons in Syria, the regime has denied these accusations.) Humanitarian aid and civilian protection were useless, she concluded, if they were not backed up with other forms of support. “If you drop a bunch of people that just want to save lives into a context where people are trying to do the opposite, structurally speaking, they will manipulate you in every way possible,” she said.

In 2017, in the wake of Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban,” Hall, a year and a half out of her government job interviewing refugees, published an editorial in the Washington Post arguing that whoever wrote the ban didn’t know about the intense vetting process that refugee applicants already had to endure. That month, a declaration signed by Hall, recapping her editorial, was filed as part of a lawsuit brought by refugee groups and individuals of Middle Eastern descent against the Trump Administration. The lawsuit led to a pause on the ban, later lifted by the Supreme Court, which eventually upheld a reworded version.

Hall moved back to D.C. a few years ago, in part because she had had a child and wanted to be closer to her parents, and in part because she wanted to be closer to the policymaking apparatus. She became a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a high-minded security-oriented think tank. She testified before Congress, briefed senior government officials, and wrote papers on Syria, civilian protection, and how to maximize the impact of humanitarian aid.

Hall was on a research trip in Jordan on October 7th of last year, when Hamas militants breached the fence that surrounded Gaza, murdered twelve hundred people, and took more than two hundred back to Gaza as hostages. Hall’s first reaction was horror. Next came bewilderment: How was it possible that Israel was so unprepared? After that, fear. She watched Joe Biden travel to Israel and urge the Israelis to learn from America’s errors after September 11th. “While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes,” he said. Hall worried that Israel would make those same mistakes. “That’s why some of the survivors of the October 7th attack came out to say that they didn’t want Israel to lash out at civilians,” Hall wrote to me. “Because they knew what would happen.”

The 9/11 attacks and the wars that followed fundamentally rearranged the American national-security apparatus, destabilized the Middle East, and left lasting scars on the American body politic. They also showed a generation of policy analysts and regional specialists what the quest for total security could look like. Among them was Annelle Sheline, who, in the fall of 2001, had just started her sophomore year in high school, in North Carolina. Even before anyone knew who had hijacked the planes and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center, one of her classmates announced, in fifth period: “We are going to kill those God damn Muslims.” At the time, Sheline later recalled in an essay about that day, she kept quiet. In retrospect, her classmate was right. “We were indeed going to kill a lot of Muslims,” she wrote.

In college, Sheline decided to study media, conflict resolution, and Arabic. She went on to get a Ph.D. in political science with a focus on religious authority in the Middle East, receiving a language fellowship for study in Egypt along the way. The experience, to some extent, was surreal: she was being paid to study the region, year after year, because the U.S. Air Force kept dropping bombs on it. After receiving her Ph.D., she settled in D.C. and worked at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which tries to present a foreign-policy alternative to American militarism. In early 2023, Sheline was hired by the State Department to work in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (D.R.L.).

Sheline said that she found the department still demoralized from the Trump Administration, and understaffed. Biden’s nominee to lead D.R.L., a longtime human-rights advocate named Sarah Margon, had just withdrawn her nomination; at a confirmation hearing, Margon had been confronted with a tweet she’d written in support of an announcement from Airbnb, in 2018, that it was not going to allow Israeli settlers in the West Bank to list their homes. (Airbnb backed off the policy in the face of several lawsuits. You can now book a stay in the settlement of your choice.) Those who remained in the department were dedicated to their mission. They believed that the United States could play a positive role in the world. Sheline felt, at first, a little “weird”—she was a lot less certain about American beneficence than some of her colleagues—but also inspired. After the Trump years, the country again had a President who seemed to believe that human rights should be a priority.

Sheline had been in government for just six months when the Hamas attacks took place. The killings shocked and dismayed her. With colleagues, she discussed what Israel’s response would likely be. She was encouraged that President Biden had warned Benjamin Netanyahu not to repeat America’s post-9/11 mistakes.

She did not have to wait long to see that Netanyahu had not listened. In the first week of Israel’s Operation Swords of Iron, its Air Force dropped more bombs on Gaza than had been dropped by the U.S. in the most high-intensity month of the campaign against ISIS , back in 2017. Civilians were being killed at an astonishing pace—more than three hundred Gaza residents died a day in the first month of the war, many of them children. In mid-October, a State Department official, Josh Paul , resigned. He had worked in the bureau that oversaw weapons transfers to Israel. In the past, he said, citing the example of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the attention paid to how weapons would be used had been “microscopic.” In this case, however, “there was none of that. It was, ‘Open doors. Go.’ ”

Sheline was impressed by Paul’s resignation, but she had no intention of following suit. For one thing, she was far more junior. For another, she had just arrived in government after a long period of trying to do so. She and her husband had a mortgage and a toddler—a little girl.

Sheline has trouble pinpointing the moment she changed her mind. During the next several months, she watched the State Department work on negotiations for a substantial ceasefire, which never seemed to come to fruition. She watched U.S. planes airdrop food packages into Gaza, Berlin Airlift-style, while its ally Israel endlessly inspected trucks that could have delivered far more food at the crossings into Gaza. She watched the Administration leak, over and over, that the President was very frustrated with Netanyahu. “It’s, like, Well, clearly he’s not,” Sheline said, “because he has a lot of power here.” If Biden were genuinely frustrated, she thought, he could demand that the ceasefire happen and that civilians be granted more access to humanitarian aid. “They’re building this stupid pier instead of just insisting on the trucks getting across the border,” she told me last month.

“Often, inside the State Department, there’s this belief in the process,” Sheline continued. “You know, ‘It’s a slow process. You have to just go through the steps.’ But, really, from what I’ve observed, the only thing that seems to be causing any shift is public pressure. I had done what I could. I had tried to do what small things are available for someone in my position on the inside.” In mid-February, citing the Israeli campaign in Gaza, she told her superiors that she was going to leave, though only after she finished a yearlong commitment to the job, and completed her work on the bureau’s annual human-rights reports. Once that was done, she shut down her personal Web site and wrote an editorial for CNN. “Unable to serve an administration that enables such atrocities,” she wrote, “I have decided to resign from my position at the Department of State.”

The experience was still very raw when we spoke over Zoom a few days later. “I know that I won’t ever probably get to work for the government again, which in D.C. may be tricky,” she said. “It’s hard to even say what a professional impact this may end up having. But, you know, I think about my daughter. I assume that she will learn about this in school. And I just want to be able to let her know that I did what I could on the inside. But then it became clear that that just wasn’t having any impact.”

The U.S. government is a very large bureaucracy. You go there to have some effect on what the government is doing. Your chances of having such an effect are inversely proportional to how much the issue matters at that moment. “I mean, not that I expected one person to shift the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Sheline said, “but I hoped that maybe by being on the inside, and working with others—there are many people inside State who are really trying, working very hard on this issue. But, you know, until the President decides that he wants the U.S. policy to change, it’s not going to change.”

For many people, in Washington and beyond, the American response to the 9/11 attacks settled an old question about the U.S. and its commitment to human rights. Clearly, it seemed to them, the U.S. had no such commitment. It was happy to preach to other people—to Serbs, Russians, Chinese—about human rights. But, when it came under attack, it would do just about anything to wipe out the threat.

Paradoxically, though, it could be argued that the American war on terror redeemed or even reconstituted the human-rights community in the U.S. In the context of that war, American human-rights advocates were no longer primarily criticizing other countries’ human-rights abuses; they were criticizing and trying to mitigate their own. In the past six months of war in Gaza, that community has been very vocal in its criticism of a longtime U.S. ally. Analysts and former government officials, many of them shaped by the American forever wars, have written eloquently about the principles of proportionality and the potential for war-crimes prosecutions not just of Israelis but of their American counterparts. They have demanded that the Biden Administration enforce American legal requirements for weapons provided by the U.S.

When I spoke to Hall last month, she said that she had never seen a war like this one. In Syria or Iraq or Ukraine, civilians could usually flee. In this conflict, Gazans are trapped. Neither Israel nor Egypt will let them in, and they know, from bitter experience, that if they leave, they may not be able to return. Another difference is the state of Gaza before the war. It was already ground down from multiple rounds of destruction and rebuilding, poor governance, and the Israeli-Egyptian economic blockade; some of the buildings that were bombed had been constructed out of concrete from previous buildings that had been bombed. (It does not help matters that, for years, Hamas put scarce resources toward its extensive underground tunnel network.) Then, there is Gaza’s water. In Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held area east of Damascus that was besieged by the Assad regime for more than five years—one of the longest sieges in modern history—Hall saw people digging wells in their back yards. In Gaza, this is hazardous. The coastal aquifer is depleted; the water underground is brackish without treatment. This greatly cuts down on the ability of Gazans to survive.

Above all, Hall was seeing an army prosecute a war using indiscriminate means. “Urban warfare is notoriously difficult, but we still have rules,” she said. “There is no military reason to withhold medicine, water, and food to a civilian-populated area—and some of the weapons being used don’t make sense.” Israel was dropping two-thousand-pound bombs (supplied by the U.S.), which have the capacity to kill within a quarter-mile radius; in Gaza, which is just five miles wide in certain places, this was a very large radius. “You don’t use weapons like that in densely populated urban areas, or, rather, shouldn’t,” Hall said. More than thirty thousand Gazans had been killed—more than a third of them reported to be children—and epidemiologists had begun to warn of famine .

For Hall and many other observers, Biden’s failure to intervene was the key factor. Hall thought Biden had made a simple political calculation: that the progressives in his party had nowhere to go. He also had a well-known soft spot for Israel, and believed deeply in its role as an American ally in the Middle East. He may also have been trying to keep Netanyahu close to prevent him from escalating with Hezbollah and Iran. Still, at some level, it was a mystery. “If you ask me what I am puzzled by, it’s not the barbarity of either Hamas or the Israeli government,” Ian Lustick, a political scientist and longtime student of Israeli affairs, told me in late March. “It’s why Biden is so slow on the uptake here.”

On April 1st, two events that had the capacity to alter the war took place. One was an Israeli strike on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, which killed two senior Iranian commanders. The other was the Israeli strike on three World Central Kitchen vehicles that were moving along the coastal road in Gaza, which killed seven aid workers who had just delivered food to a nearby warehouse.

The World Central Kitchen attack seemed to shock the President into action. In a thirty-minute phone call three days later, Biden demanded that Netanyahu start fighting with more deliberate care; that he let significantly more aid into Gaza; and that he agree to a ceasefire that will create conditions for the remaining hostages held by Hamas to be released. A readout of the call was delivered to the media by the National Security Council’s spokesman, John Kirby, who couched Biden’s warning in stern terms. “What we want to see are some real changes on the Israeli side,” Kirby said. “If we don’t see changes from their side, there will have to be changes from our side.”

But the Biden-Netanyahu phone call also had another topic: the Iranian threat of retaliation for the Israeli strike in Damascus. In the face of this threat, Biden said, the U.S. stood side by side with Israel, and would continue to support it. In more recent days, Biden’s tone has become more forceful. He has said that American intelligence indicates an attack from Iran against Israel could be imminent, and he has urged Iran to change course.

For Lustick, the call signalled a turning point in the conflict in Gaza. Israeli Prime Ministers, he said, almost never ended wars because they wanted to; instead, they did so when their allies, and in particular the United States, forced them to. This had happened in 1982, when Ronald Reagan called Menachem Begin to stop attacks on Lebanon; it happened in 2002, when George W. Bush leaned on Ariel Sharon to end his incursion into the West Bank. “Not a single war has ended because Israel’s war aims were achieved,” Lustick told me. “They always end when the United States says, ‘O.K., now you gotta stop,’—and they do. We say that in different ways, but we always have to say it, and it’s partly because the Israeli government needs it to be said, because otherwise they’d have to admit that they didn’t achieve their war aims.”

In the days after the Biden-Netanyahu phone call, this prediction seemed to be correct: Israel announced that it would soon open the Erez Crossing, in north Gaza, to allow in more humanitarian aid, and that it was pulling troops out of Khan Younis, in the south, signalling a halt, at least for now, of major military ground operations. Netanyahu said that his promised invasion of Rafah—the last city in Gaza more or less left standing, where much of the civilian population, and, the Israeli government claims, many Hamas militants, have taken refuge—would still go forward, and that a date had even been set. But his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, quickly contradicted him, telling his American counterpart that there was as yet no date for the proposed invasion.

Sheline was skeptical of the Israeli response. The bombs were still falling; the long-awaited ceasefire still hadn’t happened. And the humanitarian aid was inadequate. “They say they will open one more crossing, and they let in a hundred more trucks,” she said a few days after the Biden-Netanyahu call. “But at this point, after the World Central Kitchen attack, we have a lot of organizations pulling out because it’s a suicide mission for them. We need so much more now—there’s still nowhere near enough aid.”

Hall was worried about the so-called “day after.” “So you wipe out every Hamas soldier—then what?” she asked. “You just created a whole bunch of orphans and people who are forever traumatized by this without really anything on the other side of it.” Israel would not be able to simply leave the Strip, as it has after previous episodes of what it called “mowing the grass.” “This is very different,” Hall continued. “And I fear that if there isn’t a bigger reconstruction plan on the other end, this will be a festering wound, even more so than it has been, for decades to come.” Hall recently wrote a white paper for the Center for Strategic and International Studies about what she called “the new forever wars”—local conflicts that went on and on because they had become internationalized, as some had during the Cold War, but with more actors. Russia or China or Iran might support one side, the U.S. and Europe the other. Each side kept the other in the fight, while the root causes of the conflict remained unaddressed. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a very long-running example of such a conflict, but now more “kinetic,” more destructive, and more dangerous. And there was no end in sight.

For now, to Hall, the most immediate fear was famine. She had seen starvation in Syria. Once people started dying of hunger, as some have in Gaza, it was already too late. “In my experience, mothers will soon become so malnourished they can’t produce breast milk, they can’t get formula, and then things get really ugly,” she told me. “Society can break down from the inside. People will do anything to feed their kids.” ♦

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554 Words Short Essay on war: a blot on humanity

essay about a war

There is a common saying that war is never good, peace is never bad. But if we look back into the history of mankind, it will be cleared that there have been wars since prehistoric ages. Although attempts have been made to abolish it, success has not been achieved so far. Thus, eternal peace seems to be beyond our reach. There are people who justify wars and say that it is necessary because it is the law of nature.

They highlight their point by placing Charles Darwin at their front. It was he who established the principle of survival of the fittest. He told that there is a constant struggle for surrival in all nature, both animate and inanimate. In this struggle only those will succeed who are the fittest. Thus, war is held necessary without which there will be any development of humanity.

But such people forget that war always brings destruction on mass scale. They forget Mahatma Gandhi’s teaching of non-violence, following which he freed his motherland from the sackles of slavery. They forget that if Gandhi could oust the powerful Britishers by dint of non violence, why not others follow the same foot print.

Wars are necessary evils and their horrors are so many and of such magnitude that they cannot be described in words. We must not forget the horrors of the two world wars. In there wars, these was mass-killing and destruction of property. Thousands were made widows and orphans. War brings hatred and spreads falsehood. People become selfish and brutal. As a result humanity and morality suffers.

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War is the enemy of all humanity and human civilisation. Nothing good can be achieved out of it. Hence, it can never be glorified in any form. It not only hampers the development the nation but also uproots social cohesiveness. It slows down the pace of progress of mankind.

Wars are not the solution of the problems. Instead they generate problems and create hatred among nations. War can decide one issue but gives birth too many. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the greatest horrible faces of the consequence of wars. Even after 60 years people are suffering from the miseries of war. Whatever be the cause of war, it always results in destruction of life and property at large.

One obnoxious face of modern warfare is terrorism which targets the strongest of the strong and causes dangers beyond control of anyone. Terrorists do not discriminate between races, religion, and culture. They target only the humanity as a whole. Even the world’s super power, the USA remained helpless when its prestigious twin towers of the World Trade Centre were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001 with a well planned, well-co- ordinated and most massive suicide terrorist step. Indian Parliament was also attacked.

These terrorists did not leave the temples like Akshardham in Gujarat. These terrorist attacks are nothing but the misguided zeal of a few derailed members of our society. They work under some provocations which have no goals.

On the whole, war has always been the greatest blot on humanity. It was created by man himself but now it is beyond control of all human forces. Now it requires retrospection for the whole of human race to think over it for the sake of humanity, otherwise nothing will remain neither war nor humanity.

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English Summary

Essay on War and Peace

No doubt war is an evil, the greatest catastrophe that befalls human beings. It brings death and destruction, disease and starvation, poverty, and ruin in its wake.

One has only to look back to the havoc that was wrought in various countries not many years ago, in order to estimate the destructive effects of war. A particularly disturbing side of modern wars is that they tend to become global so that they may engulf the entire world.

But there are people who consider war as something grand and heroic and regard it as something that brings out the best in men, but this does not alter the fact that war is a terrible, dreadful calamity.

This is especially so now that a war will now be fought with atom bombs. Some people say war is necessary. A glance at the past history will tell that war has been a recurrent phenomenon in the history of nation.

No period in world history has been the devastating effects of war. We have had wars of all types long and short. In view of this it seems futile to talk of permanent and everlasting peace or to make plans for the establishment of eternal peace.

We have had advocates of non violence and the theory of the brotherhood of man. We have had the Buddha, Christ and Mahatma Gandhi. But in spite of that, weapons have always been used, military force has always been employed, clashes of arms have always occurred; war has always been waged.

War has indeed been such a marked feature of every age and period that it has come to be regarded As part of the normal life of nations. Machiavelli, the author of the known book, The Prince, defined peace as an interval between two wars Molise, the famous German field marshal declared war to be part of God’s world order.

Poets and prophets have dreamt of a millennium, a utopia in which war will not exist and eternal peace will reign on earth. But these dreams have not been fulfilled. After the Great War of 1914-18, it was thought that there would be no war for a long time to come and an institution called the League of Nations was founded as a safeguard against the outbreak of war.

The occurrence of another war (1939-45), however, conclusively proved that to think of an unbroken peace is to be unrealistic And that no institution or assembly can ever ensure the permanence of peace.

The League of Nations collapsed completely under the tensions and stresses created by Hitler. The United Nations Organization with all the good work that It has been doing is not proving as effective as was desired.

Large numbers of Wars, the most recent ones being the one in Vietnam, the other between India and Pakistan, or indo-china War, Iran-Iraq war or Arab Israel war, have been fought despite the UN. The fact of the matter is that fighting in a natural instinct in man.

When individuals cannot live always in peace, it is, indeed, too much to expect so many nations to live in a state of Eternal peace. Besides, there will always be wide differences of opinion between various nation, different angles of looking at matters that have international importance, radical difference in policy and ideology and these cannot be settled by mere discussions.

So resort to war becomes necessary in such circumstances. Before the outbreak of World War II, for instance, the spread of Communism in Russia created distrust and suspicion in Europe, democracy was an eyesore to Nazi Germany, British Conservatives were apprehensive of the possibility of Britain going Communist.

In short, the political ideology of one country being abhorrent to other times were certainly not conducive to the continuance of peace. Add to all this the traditional enemities between nations and international disharmony that have their roots in past history.

For example, Germany wished to avenge the humiliating terms imposed upon her at the conclusion of the war of 1914-18 and desired to smash the British Empire and establish an empire of her own. Past wounds, in fact, were not healed up and goaded it to take revenge.

A feverish arms race was going on between the hostile nations in anticipation of such an eventuality, and disarmament efforts were proving futile. The Indo-Pakistan war was fought over the Kashmir issue.

The war in Vietnam Was due to ideological differences. It also appears that if peace were to continue for a long period, people would become sick of the monotony of life and would seek war for a changed man is a highly dynamic creature and it seems that he cannot remain contented merely with works of peace-the cultivation of arts, the development of material comforts, the extension of knowledge, the means and appliances of a happy life.

He wants something thrilling and full of excitement and he fights in order to get an outlet for his accumulated energy. It must be admitted, too, that war Has its good side. It spurs men to heroism and self-sacrifice. It is an incentive to scientific research and development. War is obviously an escape from the lethargy of peace.

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essay about a war

A large crowd of people stand in the streets and hold Israeli flags and signs that say 'Help' and an image of. man's head with the words 'What do you see?'

Most Israelis dislike Netanyahu, but support the war in Gaza – an Israeli scholar explains what’s driving public opinion

essay about a war

Director of Security Studies and Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies, UMass Lowell

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Arie Perliger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Massachusetts provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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Eight months after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip, some critics observe that the Israeli military hasn’t met either of its goals of destroying Hamas and rescuing all of the remaining 133 hostages Hamas is holding.

Yet two-thirds of Israelis still support their military’s aggressive approach in Gaza – including limiting humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

While many Israelis support the military’s war in Gaza, most Israelis have also lost confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and would like to see new political leadership.

As someone who has studied Israeli politics for almost three decades , I believe it’s important to understand what elements contribute to Israelis’ collective mindset to explain these seemingly contradictory dynamics and views.

Three women sit on yellow chair and hold posters with photos of a young woman holding a baby and a man posing with a baby. The posters say 'Bring her home now!' and 'Bring him home now!'

A familiar feeling of persecution

Hamas militants killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and took 240 hostages back to Gaza.

The brutal Oct. 7 murders and the extermination of entire communities in southern Israel left Israelis feeling shocked, vulnerable and insecure. The attacks reminded Israelis that the country faces existential threats, which they believe need to be eliminated in any way possible .

Large brown ruins overlook a large desert and a small blue body of water in the distance.

Jewish people have long been persecuted, dating back from the biblical era to the Holocaust during World War II. Some scholars call this feeling of a constant, looming risk of persecution the “Masada syndrome .” Masada, an ancient fortification in southern Israel, was where the ancient Kingdom of Israel waged a final battle against the Roman army in A.D. 73 . Masada was eventually destroyed and all its Jewish inhabitants committed suicide in order to avoid becoming enslaved by the Romans. Jews then lost their political independence for almost 2,000 years, until Israel was established in 1948.

The story of Masada is still taught and remembered in Israel as a constant reminder that Jewish people cannot ever fully rely on the mercy or help of other countries – and that Jewish identity and independence are always at risk of persecution. For a long time, the Israeli Defense Forces held induction ceremonies atop Masada, which is also a popular tourism site.

As a ceremonial text used during the Jewish holiday of Passover says, “ Each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us .”

The Masada syndrome has been less pronounced among most Israelis in recent decades. This is partially because, up until recently, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been relatively muted since the second intifada , a violent uprising by Palestinians in the early 2000s. Israel also signed peace treaties with Arab countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco over the past several years.

The Oct. 7 attacks resulted in widespread national trauma and pushed many Israelis to re-adopt the Masada mentality .

Alone again

The global response to Oct. 7 is another important factor that pushed many Israelis to retreat to old feelings of persecution and a perceived need for self-defense.

While the United States, the United Kingdom and France expressed strong support for Israel shortly after Oct. 7, other countries , like Russia and China, did not condemn the Hamas attacks .

It also took United Nations experts about five months to recognize the systematic sexual violence committed on Oct. 7 .

Further isolating Israelis was their widespread rejection that Israel is committing war crimes , as the International Criminal Court recently alleged in a request for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant . Some Israelis have also questioned the accuracy of information about civilian death tolls in Gaza.

Most Israelis see these allegations of genocide as an example of global bias against Israel and as a new form of antisemitism.

Netanyahu has exploited these feelings of persecution to both legitimize Israel’s war in Gaza and to downplay any criticism of his own leadership.

A large crowd of people hold Israeli flags and posters in Hebrew that also have the word 'Help' on it and a silhouette of man's head.

Netanyahu’s downfall

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, polls consistently reflect Israelis’ declining support for the conservative political parties that make up Netanyahu’s ruling coalition .

A May 2024 poll shows that if elections were held today, Netanyahu’s party would lose almost 40% of the seats it has in the Israeli Parliament. The same poll also found that just 35% of Israelis think that Netanyahu is fit to be a prime minister.

In January, just 15% of Israelis thought Netanyahu should stay in office .

Several factors help explain Israelis’ overall support for Netanyahu’s policies in Gaza, but their growing distrust of him as a politician and leader.

First, most Israelis blame Netanyahu’s government for Oct. 7 . They see Netanyahu as primarily responsible for the fact that Israel did not address Hamas’ strengthening military capabilities in the past decade, including its creation of underground tunnels in Gaza.

There are also damaging issues that predate Oct 7. Netanyahu has tried to undermine the independence of the country’s judicial branch and passed legislation in 2023 that limited courts’ judicial review powers over legislation and government policies. This sparked widespread protests in Israel .

Israelis are also concerned that Netanyahu’s approach to the war – and inability to reach a hostage deal or agree to some kind of cease-fire – may be affected by his desire to stay in power. Netanyahu is facing several corruption-related charges and wants to delay these criminal trials – his defense team has said that the war leaves him with little time to attend the trials. Netanyahu also wants to appease his radical right-wing supporters, who want the war to continue.

Israelis’ concerns about Netanyahu over the past few months manifested in an outbreak of mass demonstrations in different Israeli cities. These protesters, including families of the hostages, are demanding that Netanyahu reach a deal that will free the remaining hostages – even if that means agreeing to a long-term cease-fire.

But it is not clear if these protesters make up the majority of the public opinion – and it is important to not confuse this protest with most Israelis’ desire to see Hamas defeated.

Israel’s dilemma

Israel’s path forward is unclear, and it will be influenced by a few issues. An increase in public pressure on Netanyahu may force him eventually to take responsibility for not preventing the Oct. 7 attack and resign.

The growing intensity of Israelis’ demonstrations demanding his resignation show the increasing possibility of such a scenario.

At the same time, growing international pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza may lead Netanyahu to have more conflicts with far-right members of his coalition, eventually causing the disintegration of his administration and his fall from power.

Finally, the possibility of the war expanding into a broader regional conflict would dramatically change the region’s current dynamics in ways that are difficult to predict. Nonetheless, this development could force Israel to end the war in Gaza in order to address other emerging military threats.

  • Benjamin Netanyahu
  • Israeli politics
  • Likud Party
  • Israel history
  • Israeli hostages
  • Israel-Hamas war
  • Israeli psyche
  • Jewish people
  • Jewish memory
  • Oct. 7 attack
  • Gaza conflict
  • Israel-Hamas
  • Israeli public opinion
  • October 7, 2023
  • Israel-Hamas conflict

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  • climate change

I Hate Summer—and You Should Too

Sunburned boy

W ake me when it’s over—summer, that is. I know, I know, you just love it: the long days, the warm evenings, the trips to the beach, the afternoons at the ballpark when your favorite team is playing and the pennant race is tightening—and the temperature is skyrocketing, and your skin is blistering, and the beer is $6, and the drive home will be in 88° heat, which is fine if you don’t mind running the air conditioner, except that you’re burning through $4–a-gallon gas, because it’s summer-driving season and the giant oil companies didn’t get to be the giant oil companies without knowing the right time of year to hike their prices. 

And that’s hardly all of it. Summertime is the season of horribles, from higher crime rates, to increased warfare, to spikes in asthma, to raging wildfires, to swarms of bugs, to a rise in traffic accidents—and even to a bump in divorces, because how could a 100° heat wave, a busted A.C., and the kids out of school not spell domestic bliss?

What’s more, it’s only getting worse. Last summer was the hottest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the 10 warmest years were all from 2010 to 2022. So with a lousy part of the year becoming lousier still, here, in no particular order, are nine reasons summer is the suckiest season of them all.

Road wrecks

There’s nothing like long days, no school, and lots of teen drivers to make the highways a safe place to be. Not . It’s no coincidence that the Automobile Association of America (AAA) labels the stretch between Memorial Day and Labor Day “the 100 deadliest days.” There are over 11.7 million U.S. drivers between the ages of 15 and 20, and if you know what’s good for you you’ll stay out of their way—especially when they’re out as a group, driving recreationally. “We know that when teens are joyriding as opposed to driving with a specific destination and time in mind, there is a heightened risk,” said Diana Gugliotta, senior manager of public affairs for AAA Northeast, in a statement last year.

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AAA’s numbers back that up. When a teen driver has only other teens in a vehicle, the risk of fatality for the driver and all passengers increases 51%. When at least one passenger is over 35, the overall fatality risk declines 8%. From 2011 to 2020, there were 7,316 deaths in summertime teen-related traffic accidents—nearly half the total of all teen-related traffic accidents for the year.

This means war

Napoleon Bonaparte could tell you a thing or two about what it’s like to pick a fight with Russia in the dead of winter. In 1812, the French army suffered half a million casualties in battles that climaxed in December—a rout that led to Napoleon’s abdication and exile in 1815. Any general worth his steed would prefer to fight in the summer when there’s plenty of light, the roads are clear, and soldiers aren’t bundled up against the cold. As far back as 55 BCE , the Roman army’s “campaigning season” would end when summer wound down and the soldiers would retreat to their winter quarters. It’s probably not a coincidence that World War I began in August 1914, World War II on Sept. 1, 1939, and Nazi Germany’s invasion of Russia in June 1941. More recently , in August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and in August 1991, the old Soviet Union nearly fell into civil war when communist hardliners tried to oust President Mikhail Gorbachev. America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan typically saw its fiercest fighting in the summer months, and the same is true of the war in Ukraine .

Hot-weather warfare is likely only to get worse. A 2009 paper in PNAS found that rising temperatures exacerbated by climate change could lead to a 54% increase in the risk of civil war in Africa by 2030. A 2011 study in Nature found that warmer weather during El Niño years doubled the risk of civil war in 90 tropical countries and could have accounted for 20% of conflicts around the world over the past half century. Meantime, what’s the season of peace on Earth and goodwill toward men? Wintertime, baby. Wintertime.

Going buggy

Summer advertises itself as the season of birdsong and butterflies. Don’t believe it. It’s the season of pests—particularly ticks, mosquitoes, flies, fleas, bees, and wasps. Ticks, mosquitoes, and fleas in particular can spread diseases that include malaria, yellow fever, Zika, dengue, Lyme, and chikungunya. Bees, wasps, and yellowjackets—with their infernal stings—are similarly creatures of the summer. And you think you know flies? You don’t know flies. There are 110,000 species of them —most more active in hot weather—making up a global population of 17 million flies for every living human. Pssst ! They’ve got us surrounded.

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Season of wheeze

Ah, summer, it takes your breath away. Literally. More than 25 million Americans have asthma, and 4.7 million of them are children— according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If that means suffering during the temperate months, it’s much worse when the oven that is summer turns the dial up to broil. Heat and humidity constrict and narrow airways , trap ozone, and cause the air to entrain more particulate matter from cars, trucks, and smokestacks. What’s more, stagnant summer air—especially in homes with poor air conditioning or none at all—can exacerbate the presence of mold, dust, and pollen. And then—and stop me if I’ve mentioned this before—climate change is making things more punishing still for people with asthma. A 2023 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report found that rising temperatures could increase the incidence of childhood asthma by anywhere from 4% to 11%, due partly to worsening pollution and allergies, and the growing problem of wildfire smoke .

Speaking of wildfires…

When it comes to dust, haze, and a mustard-colored sky, Mars has got nothing on Earth—at least during the summer fire season. Last year’s Canadian wildfires , sparked by lightning and fueled by high temperatures and drought, torched more than 71,000 square miles of land in Canada—an area the size of North Dakota—and yellowed out skies in the U.S. from the Midwest to the Northeast to the mid-Atlantic states. But the U.S. is playing with matches too. California’s wildfire season runs from April through October—peaking in the summer—with megadroughts and heat waves driving the flames. Of the state’s 20 largest fires, half occurred from 2017 to 2022. Climate change, of course, plays a regrettable role in all of this.

Crime and punishment

Nothing puts bad guys in a bad mood like hot weather—or so it seems. A 2019 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that on days with a maximum temperature above 85°F, all crime increases by 2.2% and violent crime by 5.7%. A 2023 study in PLOS One attributed this to what is known as the Theory of Routine Activities, which postulates that for crime to occur, three factors must be present: a motivated offender, a suitable target, and an absence of guards or surveillance. Of these, it is the second one—the suitable target—that is especially common in summer, according to the 2023 study, with greater numbers of people out on the streets. 

As for the first variable, a motivated offender, well, even criminals don’t   want to be outside commiting a crime in a 20°-below polar vortex. During a particularly deep freeze in 2015, Boston saw a 32% drop in burglaries, a 35% drop in larceny, and 46% drop in vehicle theft. Over the same period, New York City set a modern-day record , going 12 days without a homicide.

Summer’s contribution to violent crime in particular may be due at least in part to the common experience of hot weather leading to hot tempers, with even the most even-keeled people more inclined to blow a seam if they can’t cool off. One 2020 study found that people playing competitive video games in a hot room were more aggressive toward their gaming partner than they were when the room was cooler.

Daylight Saving Time

Don’t get me started on Daylight Saving Time. There is just nothing to like about this spring-forward inanity. For starters, it increases energy consumption (when it was supposed to decrease it) due to greater use of air conditioning. The changes in sleep patterns it causes contribute to heart attack , stroke , inflammation , and suicide , not to mention a 6% increase in fatal traffic accidents due to circadian scrambling and overall sleepiness. Small children and teens suffer particularly when the change in the clocks affects sleep cycles.

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Finally, the atmospherics are all wrong. Nighttime is nighttime, people; the sun is the party guest that won’t go home if it’s still out at 9 p.m. I say send it packing no later than 8 p.m. and then race back to a nice wintertime sundown at cocktail hour. Cheers.

Trouble on the homefront

If you want to stay married, it might be wise to sleep through summer. That’s the finding of a 2016 study out of the University of Washington showing that August, along with March, are the two peak months for divorce in the U.S. The reason in both cases is more or less the same: couples tend to see winter and summer vacations as untouchable family time and, even in highly stressed marriages, will make it a point to hold the ship together for those treasured stretches. Once the good times are over, however, the marriages might be too.

“People tend to face the holidays with rising expectations, despite what disappointments they might have had in years past,” said sociology professor and the study’s co-author Julie Brines, in a statement at the time the research was released. “They’re very symbolically charged moments in time.”

When those expectations are dashed, a bust-up is likelier to follow. And while both early spring and late summer were implicated equally in that study, other research by Stowe Family Law in the U.K. found that September—the tail end of summer—is the peak divorce month on the other side of the pond, with total-immersion family time throwing financial, interpersonal, and other issues into relief. 

It kills your skin

No matter how good it might feel to bake in the sun, your skin really, truly does not want a tan. In a rapidly warming world, it should come as no surprise that the sun is murder on your skin—drying it, aging it, cracking it, and much more importantly, leading to cancer. A 2022 paper in the journal Cureus found the highest rates of skin cancer diagnoses occurring from July to October. 

Simple steps like wearing sunscreen , avoiding the sun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and wearing protective clothing can all help reduce the risk. Sunshine in the winter, of course, can cause similar damage, but in the summer you're out a whole lot more and wearing a whole lot less. That—like summer as a whole—spells trouble.

Correction: The original version of this story misstated the date of Napoleon Bonaparte's abdication. It was 1815, not 1914.

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Book Review

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The paradigm-changing era from the 1960s through the tumult of the early 1970s is the backdrop of novelist Francine Prose’s first memoir, “1974.” Her title’s namesake year included the aftermath of President Nixon’s resignation , Patty Hearst’s kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army and the New York Times’ revelations of illegal domestic spying by the CIA.

The book’s protagonist is not an individual, but a generation, embodied by the author. Its starting point and through line is Prose’s bizarre, quasi-romantic relationship with “anti-Vietnam war whistleblower and free speech hero” Anthony Russo , who helped Daniel Ellsberg “liberate” the top-secret Pentagon Papers in 1971, exposing the U.S. government’s lethal lies about the Vietnam War, thereby intensifying the movement to end it.

Prose’s path collided with Russo’s two years after he and Ellsberg were indicted on espionage charges . Prose was a young writer and activist, having newly escaped her Cambridge, Mass., marriage for “the kind of nomadic life you could live back then” in the funky garrets and twisted alleyways of Boho San Francisco. “I wanted to feel like an outlaw,” she writes. “So did everyone I knew. Bonnie and Clyde were our Romeo and Juliet.”

On the night she met him, “Tony looked at me a beat too long,” she writes. “By 1974, most of the men I knew had learned better than to look at a woman that way. ... Tony congratulated me on my book, [saying] the kind of thing that men had recently learned to say if they wanted to get laid.”

1974 book cover

Throughout “1974, ” Prose skillfully interweaves the political and the personal elements of this watershed time. Many lesser writers have tried this and failed. It has proved tempting for so-called 1960s experts to bait readers with sensational tales of whirling, free-loving naked hippies, and for history buffs to reduce to facts and figures the impassioned insurgency that brought the nation, and the Western world, to revolution’s brink. Of the many books I’ve read (and written) on the topic — I lived in parallel to Prose’s 1960s-1970s life — none has matched Prose’s use of the personal to deepen the political and vice versa. She widens her lens on each intimate anecdote, narrows it on information-enriched passages that might otherwise feel dryly didactic. You’d have to read many, many books to deduce what Prose serves up here in just a few sentences: a revolution rendered as roux.

“If the late ’60s were about believing in the possibility of fundamental change,” she reflects, “the 1970s were about the dawning realization that the changes we’d wanted weren’t going to happen. ... The ideals of the ’60s were sorted and reconfigured for profit. The surge of power we got from our victories — the end of the Vietnam War, the 1973 ruling of Roe vs. Wade — were replaced by the more reliable dopamine hits of spending and acquisition.”

Brilliantly, Prose situates her strange, disappointing personal relationship with Russo within the broader context of her generation’s crushing political disappointments, first with the America their parents raised them to revere, thanks in large part to exposés such as the Pentagon Papers. “The America that was in Vietnam,” Prose quotes Russo, “was the opposite of the America I’d learned about in school.” Then came our generation’s sinking sense of failure, realizing, “We were dreaming a whole new future, as glorious and improbable as Oz.”

In “1974, ” Russo’s character stands in for both sides of the youth revolution of that era. He’s as crazy and as corrupt as America, and he’s as earnest and as ungrounded as America’s children who were trying to overthrow it. Painfully, it takes 20-something, pre-feminist Prose longer than it takes the reader to realize that Russo is too troubled to be relationship material. Satisfyingly, in 2024, Prose the seasoned writer uses this dissonance to the book’s advantage, turning her youthful, reflexive longing for Russo into a ticking timepiece of the bad old days when a woman wanted a man to want her, regardless of the cost, especially a notorious man who had saved incalculable Vietnamese and American lives.

“Tony needed to reschedule. Could we meet the following night? I was way too disappointed. That should have been a warning,” she writes as the book, and the relationship, turn toward their endings. Instead, she visits a friend for a tarot reading. “Lots of swords turned up. ... Moira said, ‘You can see as well as I can that something is going to end badly.’ I wanted her to assure me that the tarot’s warning wasn’t about him, but I was afraid to ask. I knew as well as she did.”

After many years of estrangement from Prose, and a mental breakdown from which she finally realized she couldn’t rescue him, Russo died of heart disease in 2008. “We lost track of each other, and we let ourselves forget,” Prose writes. As she deserves to do, as we all deserve to do, in the end she forgives her younger, dream-driven self. “I think about Tony when I hear people talking about the crises we face now, saying that there’s nothing that can be done. ... Tony believed that you had to do something. That’s what we believed at that time. Even if … the chances were that most of what you did would eventually be undone, you still had to try.”

In this, her first memoir, Prose succeeds where many before her have failed, enlivening — without demonizing or idealizing — the valiant, creative, idealistic movement that almost brought capitalism down. The era Prose profiles under the title “1974” produced crucial social advances, and did collateral damage to those, such as Russo, who were driven mad by the effort required. Fortunately for us, that period also yielded the best book yet by the wildly prolific, astonishingly talented Francine Prose.

Meredith Maran, author of “The New Old Me” and other books, lives in a Silver Lake bungalow that’s even older than she is.

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Israel’s war on Gaza updates: ‘More than 30’ killed in Rafah strike

The Israeli army bombed a displacement camp in south Gaza, the Gaza Civil Defence said, killing and wounding dozens.

Smoke billows following Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 25

This live page is now closed. You can continue to follow our coverage of the war in Gaza here .

  • The Israeli army bombed a displacement camp in northern Rafah, killing at least 35 Palestinians, the Gaza Health Ministry says.
  • The Hamas military wing launches a missile attack on Tel Aviv, triggering alarm sirens. Earlier, the Qassam Brigades said its fighters “killed and captured” an unidentified number of Israeli soldiers in Jabalia camp. The Israeli military has denied the claim.
  • This comes as Israel has intensified attacks across Gaza, killing more than 80 Palestinians in the past 24 hours.
  • At least 35,984 Palestinians have been killed and up to 80,643 people have been wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s attack on that date stands at 1,139, with dozens still held captive.

First priority is ceasefire in Gaza: Palestine PM

Achieving a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible should be the first priority, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa has told European stakeholders.

“Every day represents a major loss of human lives and properties and hope for our people, so we want to see a ceasefire taking place very quickly,” he said.

Mustafa says the organisation wants to be prepared as a government to assist Palestinians after the war and rebuild PA institutions in Gaza and reintegrate them with those in the occupied West Bank.

Ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, the new prime minister is in Brussels pitching reforms and offering a plan for the future of Gaza.

The first priority is to support our people in #Gaza , they need every support we can; and I think the best support we can all do for them is to speed up the ceasefire. #Palestine pic.twitter.com/rwlsHGkr65 — PM of Palestine (@PalestinePMO) May 27, 2024

UNRWA says Rafah attack shows Gaza is ‘hell on earth’

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees says it is horrified as it follows information coming out of Rafah about the Israeli attacks on tents belonging to displaced Palestinians.

There are reports of mass casualties, “including children and women among those killed”, it said in a post on X. “Gaza is hell on earth. Images from last night are yet another testament to that.”

UNRWA added that it has lost contact with its staff on the ground and is concerned about their safety, along with those of civilians in the area.

Information coming out of #Rafah about further attacks on families seeking shelter is horrifying. There are reports of mass causalities including children and women among those killed. Gaza is hell on earth. Images from last night are yet another testament to that. — UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 27, 2024

Hezbollah claims drone attack on Israeli base

The armed Lebanese group says in a statement that its forces used different munitions to hit the al-Malikiyah site used by Israeli forces during border fighting.

Rockets and artillery shells were used and a drone dropped explosives with precision, Hezbollah claimed.

This was their third attack on Monday, with others targeting positions in northern Israel using artillery shells.

The group claimed 15 attacks on Israeli positions on Sunday, including strikes using rockets and antitank guided missiles. It also confirmed multiple fighters were killed.

Here’s what happened today

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s events:

  • The Ministry of Health in Gaza says  at least 35 Palestinians were killed and dozens more were injured as a result of Israeli air attacks on a camp in Rafah for displaced people
  • Women and children are amongst those killed, the ministry said.
  • At least 12 people have been killed after Israeli forces attacked a home in the Jabalia al-Nazlh area in northern Gaza.
  • The Israeli army has said eight rockets were launched from the Rafah area in southern Gaza at central Israel.
  • A “strong” Palestinian Authority is needed to bring peace in the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says.
  • At least one civilian was killed and another injured in the Israeli drone attack, which hit a motorcycle in southern Lebanon’s Aita al-Shaab, according to Lebanon’s NNA news agency.

Israel ‘cannot exist without… Palestinian state’: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin-Farhan has said after meetings with Arab and European counterparts in Brussels that it is very concerning that Israel does not recognise that the security it seeks comes through a two-state solution.

“It is absolutely necessary that Israel accepts that it cannot exist without the existence of a Palestinian state,” the top Saudi diplomat told reporters.

“That its security is served by building a Palestinian state. So we hope sincerely that the leaders of Israel will realise that it is in their interest to work with the international community, not just to strengthen the Palestinian Authority but to establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.”

#Brussels | Foreign Minister HH Prince @FaisalbinFarhan : it is absolutely necessary that Israel accepts that it cannot exist without the existence of a Palestinian State. pic.twitter.com/F8IDDqGGg2 — Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) May 26, 2024

Rashida Tlaib blasts Biden, Netanyahu in pro-Palestine conference speech

The US congresswoman has delivered her harshest rebuke yet of the administration of President Joe Biden during a speech at a Detroit pro-Palestine conference.

“Attacking the authority of the International Criminal Court and interfering in legal processes is nothing more than an attempt to prevent the genocidal maniac Netanyahu and his senior Israeli officials for being held accountable for crimes against humanity.”

“You are an enabler, President Biden,” Tlaib said to applause.

The first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress added that the US position that no genocide is taking place in Gaza amounts to “shielding murderous criminal Netanyahu and the Israeli government”.

U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib at People’s Conference for Palestine: By Attacking the Authority of the ICC, President Biden Is Enabling, Shielding Genocidal Maniac Netanyahu and Senior Israeli Officials pic.twitter.com/LmBKsUDpja — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 26, 2024

WATCH: Children in Gaza’s al-Mawasi makeshift classrooms find hope and learning amid war

About 620,000 children in Gaza have been out of school for nearly eight months.

In al-Mawasi, a narrow, barren strip of land designated an evacuation zone by the Israeli army, tents are being used as makeshift classrooms.

Watch our video report below.

EU expresses ‘deep concern’ over state of Palestinian Authority

Palestinian Authority representatives were told during a meeting hosted by Norway and the EU that European donors have “deep concern over the deteriorating situation” of the organisation.

According to Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, they also expressed support “for strengthening the government of Palestine”.

In a separate meeting on Israel’s war on Gaza, an event also co-hosted by Norway in Brussels, top diplomats from Qatar and Saudi Arabia sat down with EU foreign ministers and representatives.

According to the Qatari Foreign Ministry, it was a follow-up to a similar meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh in April, which also focused on ways of moving towards a two-state solution.

Together w/ EU High Rep @JosepBorrellF , I hosted today’s partner meeting, where PM Mustafa presented his plans for strengthening the government of Palestine. The donors expressed deep concern over the deteriorating situation of the Palestine Authority and reaffirmed our support. pic.twitter.com/vqclafCWt2 — Espen Barth Eide (@EspenBarthEide) May 26, 2024

Israeli forces bomb home in central Gaza

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting of injuries following an Israeli raid that hit the home of the al-Helu family, east of the Salah Shehadeh Mosque in Camp 1 in Nuseirat.

We will bring you more information as it becomes available.

‘All red lines have ceased to exist’

Responding to the attack at the tent camp in Rafah, Palestinian writer and activist Kaleem Hawa said it was clear “there is no red line for Israel and the United States”.

“They have the ability to attack the civilian population indiscriminately to create mass graves, … to put 2 million people under siege,” he told Al Jazeera from Detroit, US, where a pro-Palestine conference is ongoing.

“All red lines have ceased to exist. And only the resistance of the Palestinian people on the ground and our struggle here in the imperial core will help bring about an end to this ongoing genocide and campaign of extermination.”

‘Rise up and march’ against Israeli ‘massacre’ in Rafah: Hamas

“In light of the horrific Zionist massacre this evening committed by the criminal occupation army against the tents of the displaced… we call on the masses of our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the occupied territories, and abroad to rise up and march angrily against the ongoing Zionist massacre against our people in the sector,” the armed group said in a statement.

Earlier, the Israeli army bombed a displacement camp in northwest Rafah, killing at least 35 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Health system ‘incapable’ of dealing with situation in Rafah: Red Cross

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza has spoken to Al Jazeera about the attack on the displacement camp in Rafah.

Here is a summary of their comments:

  • There is a need to follow the basic rules of international humanitarian law.
  • The healthcare system in Gaza is incapable of dealing with the situation in Rafah.
  • The number of victims from the bombing of the displacement camp and raids in Rafah is likely to rise.

‘They burned people alive’

Survivors of the Israeli attack on the displacement camp in Rafah have spoken to Al Jazeera.

“I was walking and looking at my phone when the area was struck,” one survivor said.

“I did not realise what had happened. I had no idea what had become my family. My mother was with me and my brother was injured at the camp. I fell to the ground and saw that my leg had been split open.”

Another survivor said the air raid “burned an entire block”.

“They burned people alive,” he said.

Israeli military says acted according to international law in attacks on Rafah displaced

The Israeli military has said in a short statement that its attacks on Rafah, which have left at least 35 people dead, mostly women and children, targeted a “compound of the terrorist organisation Hamas in Rafah, where key terrorists of the organisation were staying”.

It said the attacks were conducted “in accordance with international law, using precise munitions, and based on preliminary intelligence indicating the use of the area by Hamas terrorists”.

The Israeli military added that it is aware of “claims” of a fire breaking out in the area housing UN shelters, which led to “a number of non-involved people” getting injured.

Israel continues its strikes on Rafah, the city that the International Court of Justice recently ordered it to cease attacking.

قائد فريق الإعداد بالدفاع المدني: الاحتلال يريد إيصال رسالة بأن كل غزة مستهدفة #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/Pppg1r7NrV — الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) May 26, 2024

Israel committing genocide in Gaza: Human Rights Watch founder

Aryeh Neier, a long-standing Jewish human rights activist whose family fled from Nazi Germany to the United States in 1939 when he was two years old, says he has been convinced that the Israeli military is committing “genocide” in Gaza.

“Over a period of time, Israel has obstructed the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and those who have been most severely victimised are not members of Hamas,” the co-founder of Human Rights Watch told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview.

Neier said men with guns often find a way to get fed, while it is vulnerable children who are severely malnourished across the enclave.

“I thought that severe obstruction in the delivery of humanitarian assistance amounted to genocide.”

The humanitarian activist added that the amount of food, water, medicine and fuel that the Israeli military has allowed into Gaza since the start of the war has been “entirely inadequate”, also pointing out that the World Food Programme has said famine is under way in the Palestinian territory.

Is Israel committing humanitarian crimes in Gaza? The Israeli gov’t strenuously denies it. Aryeh Neier, a giant in the world of human rights who escaped Nazi Germany and later cofounder Human Rights Watch, says the answer is yes. Our conversation from today’s GPS: pic.twitter.com/dQC20WDywO — Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) May 26, 2024

Israel confirms attacking Rafah area

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said the Israeli army has confirmed launching an attack on the Tal as-Sultan area in the southern Gaza city.

The details of this attack are under investigation.

Rafah attack death toll climbs to 35

The Ministry of Health in Gaza says in a statement that at least 35 Palestinians were killed and dozens more were injured as a result of the air attacks on Rafah.

Most of the victims were displaced women and children who were targeted with “mass killing tools”, while already being deprived of water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel, according to the ministry.

Gaza office: Israel targeting displaced shelters with 2,000-pound bombs

The Government Media Office in Gaza says in a statement that the Israeli military has targeted at least 10 displacement centres affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) in the past 24 hours.

It says shelters housing tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been hit in Jabalia, Nuseirat, Gaza City and Rafah. With the latest strikes on Rafah, the death toll of the attacks stands at over 190, according to the office.

It added that a recent attack on Rafah was carried out using seven 2,000-pound (one-tonne) bombs, which killed at least 30, with the fatalities expected to rise due to the severity of the air strikes.

The office regarded the attacks as a “clear message” from Israel and the United States government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the global community that “the massacres against displaced persons and children will continue, and that breaking international law will not stop”.

Israeli military claims it attacks Rafah ‘rocket launch site’

The Israeli military has released aerial footage that it says shows an air strike on the site in Gaza’s Rafah from which Hamas had fired missiles at Tel Aviv earlier today.

It claimed that the launcher, which had fired eight projectiles at central Israel in a sort of attack not seen in months, was located near two mosques.

The Qassam Brigades of Hamas released a video of the missile barrage.

"كـ.ـتائب القـ.ـسام" تقصف تل أبيب برشقة صاروخية #حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/TDFsfAmbga — الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) May 26, 2024

Translation: Qassam Brigades bombards Tel Aviv with a missile barrage.

Hamas, PIJ condemn Rafah ‘massacre’, US role in Gaza killings

The two Palestinian groups fighting against Israeli forces in Gaza say in separate statements that the mass killing of displaced civilians in western Rafah is especially “heinous” since the Israeli military had declared the area a safe zone.

“We hold the American administration and President Biden in particular fully responsible for this massacre,” said Hamas, adding that the air strikes come “in complete defiance and disregard for” the orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt Rafah military operations.

The statement by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said the attacks on Rafah show “the depths of the military failure” that Israel is trying to compensate in blood.

“The continuation of the enemy’s crimes in the Gaza Strip is a result of the cover provided by the US administration, the positions of some European governments, and the weak stances of Arab regimes,” it said.

الاحتلال الإسرائيلي يرتكب مجزرة مروعة بحق النازحين شمال غربي رفح جنوبي قطاع غزة #حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/18qnCiZLpx — الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) May 26, 2024

Translation: The Israeli occupation commits a horrific massacre against the displaced people northwest of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

Spain, Turkey foreign ministers discuss Palestinian recognition move

Jose Manuel Albares and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan have met in Brussels.

“We have reviewed our bilateral relations and talked about Spain’s decision to recognise the State of Palestine next Tuesday,” he said in a post on X.

“We agree on the need to join forces for peace.”

Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, declared this week it would recognise a Palestinian state on May 28. Israel said this amounted to a “reward for terrorism” and recalled its ambassadors from the three capitals.

Encuentro en Bruselas con mi homólogo de Turquía, @HakanFidan . Hemos repasados nuestras relaciones bilaterales y hablado sobre la decisión de España de reconocer el Estado de Palestina el próximo martes. Coincidimos en la necesidad de aunar esfuerzos por la paz. pic.twitter.com/p9W3qz54N3 — José Manuel Albares (@jmalbares) May 26, 2024

More on attack on displacement camp in Rafah

We now have more information for you on the Israeli raid in the southern Gaza city.

The Civil Defence crew in Gaza has told Al Jazeera that at least 30 people have been killed and dozens more wounded as a result of the attack.

Injuries include amputations and severe burns, the group said. Children were among the victims, it added.

Palestinian Authority should be at ‘centre’ of efforts in Gaza: UN official

Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland says there is a need to “stabilise” the Palestinian Authority.

“I put forward that a political framework is needed to ensure that the PA is at the center of our collective efforts in Gaza and as a path to a two state solution,” he added in a post on X.

He also appealed for a ceasefire and the release of all captives held in Gaza.

2/ In addition to reiterating the SG’s urgent appeal for the release of all hostages and a ceasefire, I call for all concerned to work toward these objectives and not against. All alternatives simply lead us into the abyss. — Tor Wennesland (@TWennesland) May 26, 2024

More raids on Rafah neighbourhoods after attack on displacement camp

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli forces have launched three more air raids on residential neighbourhoods in southern Gaza city.

The latest series of attacks comes just days after a World Court ruling ordered Israel to halt its offensive on Rafah, citing “immense risk” to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians taking shelter there.

Israel bombed Rafah over 60 times in 48 hours after ICJ orders

The Israeli military carried out more than 60 air raids on Rafah in the 48 hours after the World Court ordered it on Friday to halt military operations in the southern Gaza city, according to a rights monitor.

Amid an Israeli ground invasion of the area, dozens of artillery shells and constant gunfire were also directed toward Palestinians in Rafah in that period, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

“Thirteen Palestinians were killed in the 48 hours following the Court’s ruling, including six members of the Qishta family, an elderly mother and three of her children – two girls and one boy – and an adult son and his two children,” the Geneva-based organisation said.

They were reportedly killed on Saturday in Khirbet al-Adas, an area north of Rafah that was not included in the Israeli evacuation orders.

Gaza: After ICJ order to halt attacks on Rafah, Israel launches over 60 air raids on the city in 48 hours https://t.co/aafYhM3FTX — Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) May 26, 2024

Opinion Columnists | Dan Rodricks: Mac Mathias memories, nostalgia…

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Opinion columnists | dan rodricks: mac mathias memories, nostalgia for a principled republican senator | staff commentary.

Charles McC. "Mac" Mathias Jr., a Republican from Frederick County, served Maryland in the House and Senate from 1961 until 1987.

Imagine a Republican known for his political and moral courage, a champion of civil rights, voting rights, equal rights, the rule of law, ethical government, collegiality and bipartisanship.

Imagine a Republican known not so much for cutting taxes as for increasing efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger.

Imagine a senator who, despite his suburban/rural roots, wants to help cities like Baltimore.

He also wants to support strong environmental regulation to save the Chesapeake Bay and the development of clean energy sources to slow climate change.

He refuses to go along with the tough-on-crime trend of the moment, becoming the only senator to vote against mandatory sentences and the abolition of parole for federal inmates, warning (accurately) of mass incarceration as the nation escalates the war on drugs.

He demands campaign finance reform and decries the influence of money on both Republicans and Democrats. For this, he is called “the conscience of the Senate.”

As I say, it’s impossible to imagine such a thoroughly principled and progressive Republican in Congress today.

Maryland voters might still want to send such an admirable man to Washington, as they did repeatedly from 1961 to 1987.

But it’s hard to imagine that Maryland Democrats would see the point, with today’s congressional Republicans more cult than caucus, and so much potentially at stake with a partisan power shift in the Senate.

Most of all, it’s hard to imagine Charles McCurdy Mathias Jr. being a happy camper in Washington. It’s impossible to imagine him joining all those other spineless Republicans in supporting Donald Trump, by standing behind him at his criminal trial in New York or by cynically casting doubts on the integrity of the 2024 presidential election even before any votes are cast.

Were he still alive, Mac Mathias would be appalled at what’s become of his party.

In fact, when he left Washington, it was during the second term of President Ronald Reagan and the shift of the GOP to the right. That’s almost a quaint thought these days — Reagan’s brand of conservatism being mild by Trump-era standards — but it’s mentioned in a new book as one of the factors that led to Mathias’ decision to leave Washington.

He died in 2010, but memories of Mathias’ long service in both the House and Senate remain golden for those who knew him or worked for him.

The three-term senator is described in “Mathias of Maryland: Remembering a Lincoln Republican in the Senate,” a series of insightful and nostalgic essays published this month by McFarland Books. The editors are Frederic B. Hill and Monica Healy, both of whom worked for Mathias. (Hill is a former Sun foreign correspondent who became Mathias’ director of foreign affairs in 1985.)

Among the essay authors are Rep. Steny Hoyer and former Sen. Barbara Mikulski. The book closes with then-Vice President Joe Biden’s eulogy of Mathias.

“From Mac, more than anything else, I learned about courage, both moral and political,” Biden said. “It is Mac’s moral courage, the rarest of qualities, that made him stand out among the many great men and women with whom I have served.”

The essays, along with the foreword by political scholar and one-time congressional staffer Norman J. Ornstein, describe a very different Washington and GOP.

Once upon a time, Ornstein notes, Mathias operated among kindred spirits, moderates who believed in the importance and integrity of the Senate and holding to a norm that has been called “institutional patriotism.” They were partisan, to be sure, and there were bitter battles over civil rights, the Vietnam War and the GOP’s racially-charged push toward “law and order.” But there were bipartisan bright spots — the passage of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Title IX rights for girls and women; even the Senate’s investigation of the Nixon Watergate scandal was bipartisan, civilized and thorough.

But the group of moderate and liberal Republicans who regularly worked across the aisle does not exist today, say Hill and Healy.

“Today’s party is a shell of what it once was,” they write. “It has been on a downward spiral since Ronald Reagan shifted the party to the right and House Speaker Newt Gingrich led it to a new level of tribalism.”

Ornstein notes few, if any, conservative Democrats in the Senate and no moderate-to-liberal Republicans like Mathias. With the exception of the retiring Mitt Romney, Ornstein adds, the few Republican senators with Mathias-level gravitas “regularly voted with Donald Trump’s desires and interests, acting more like apparatchiks than independent-minded, problem-solving senators, saying little or nothing about Trump’s corruption and links to the world’s most vicious autocrats and dictators.”

Perhaps this will change some day, though it’s hard to imagine when — just as it’s hard to imagine Mac Mathias in Washington today.

“A liberal Republican, putting country over party, voting his conscience even when it clashed with the narrow interests of a president of his party, is simply nowhere to be found in the Senate or House,” writes Ornstein. “But one thing is clear to anyone who knew and worked with Mac Mathias: He would not bend his values one iota to fit the demands of his tribe if he were here and in the Senate today.”

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  1. World War 2 Essay

    essay about a war

  2. World War 1 Essay

    essay about a war

  3. Causes of world war 1 essay

    essay about a war

  4. The Causes Of World War 2 History Free Essay Example

    essay about a war

  5. World War 1 Essay

    essay about a war

  6. World War 2 Essay

    essay about a war

VIDEO

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  2. Visual Essay: WAR

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  5. Why there will never be peace in the Middle East (or anywhere else)

  6. basically the Civil War (2024) discourse

COMMENTS

  1. Essays About War: Top 5 Examples And 5 Prompts

    Then, argue your case and show how its effects are positive, negative, or both. 4. Moral and Ethical Issues Concerning War. Many issues arise when waging war, such as the treatment of civilians as "collateral damage," keeping secrets from the public, and torturing prisoners.

  2. War

    war, in the popular sense, a conflict between political groups involving hostilities of considerable duration and magnitude. In the usage of social science, certain qualifications are added. Sociologists usually apply the term to such conflicts only if they are initiated and conducted in accordance with socially recognized forms. They treat war as an institution recognized in custom or in law.

  3. The Conduct and Consequences of War

    Over the past 15 years, research by social scientists on the conduct and consequences of war has expanded considerably. Previously, scholarly research had been heavily oriented towards the analysis of the causes of interstate war and its onset. Three simultaneous trends, however, have characterized scholarship on war since the early 2000s.

  4. War, The Philosophy of

    Just war theory is a useful structure within which the discourse of war may be ethically examined. In the evolving context of modern warfare, a moral calculus of war will require the philosopher of war to account not only for military personnel and civilians, but also for justifiable targets, strategies, and use of weapons.

  5. War Essay Examples for College Students

    An essay about war shouldn't be biased as your purpose is to research and explain the facts the way you can, based on evidence. If you are writing a personal or a reflective essay on war, you can provide your thoughts and turn to philosophical aspects of the issue. Check twice with an academic advisor to ensure that you're on the right track.

  6. How to Write War Essay: Step-By-Step Guide

    In any scenario, we have gathered valuable guidance on how to organize war essays. Let's first examine the potential reasons for a conflict before moving on to the outline for a war essay. Economic Gain - A country's desire to seize control of another country's resources frequently starts conflicts. Even when the proclaimed goal of a war is ...

  7. The Ethics of War: Essays

    The Ethics of War continues and pushes past this trend. This anthology is an authoritative treatment of the ethics and law of war by eminent scholars who first challenged the orthodoxy of Just War theory, as well as by "second-wave" revisionists. The twelve original essays span both foundational and topical issues in the ethics of war ...

  8. The Many Aspects of War: [Essay Example], 822 words

    This essay explores the historical perspectives, causes, types, impacts on society, ethical and moral aspects, role of media, and international institutions and peacekeeping efforts related to war. By understanding these aspects of war, people can better understand the complexities of the world and work towards a more peaceful existence.

  9. #Essays on War: Why Do We Fight?

    They all all have to do with selfless love. There appears to be a deeper meaning in why service men and women, soon-to-be or otherwise, decide to fight our country's battles. Most say it is to fight for their country, home, and loved ones. Others say it's to serve a cause greater than themselves. Some join because they need a job to support ...

  10. War by Margaret Macmillan

    War is as good a place as any from which to start. As MacMillan explains, violence has always been central to the human condition, triggered by greed, ambition, emotions and ideas. But the scale ...

  11. 635 War Topics to Write about & Essay Samples

    Check out this list for inspiration! Here, you will find best war topics to write about, be it WW1, Vietnam War, or the Cold War. Choose a catchy title for war-themed paper or speech, and don't forget to read our essay examples! We will write. a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts.

  12. War Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

    188 essay samples found. War, as a recurring and devastating aspect of human history, presents a vast array of topics for discussion. Essays on war could delve into the myriad causes of war, from political and territorial disputes to economic interests and ideological differences. The discourse might extend to the examination of warfare through ...

  13. First World War: Causes and Effects

    In conclusion, the First World War led to the loss of many lives. These included soldiers and innocent citizens of the countries at war. The First World War also led to extensive destruction of property. The infrastructure and buildings in many towns crumbled. It contributed to displacement of people from their homes.

  14. War Essays: Examples, Topics, & Outlines

    War The Experience of War War has changed greatly in character from the days of knights in shining armor. The concept of a "state" rather than just a regional ruler has changed the dynamic of war. Rather than meeting on a battlefield and duking it out, two armies now willfully attack civilian targets to demoralize a population, cut off trade routes to starve a population, and, if it comes to ...

  15. Essay on War and Its Effects

    500 Words Essay on War and Its Effects Introduction. War, an organized conflict between two or more groups, has been a part of human history for millennia. Its effects are profound and far-reaching, influencing political, social, and economic aspects of societies. Understanding the impact of war is crucial to comprehend the intricacies of ...

  16. ≡Essays on War. Free Examples of Research Paper Topics, Titles

    That is why essays on war make part of most students' lives. If you major in history, you should always be ready to fight the complexities of a world war essay. There are numerous topics you will cover in the course of your studies from the Holocaust, World War 1, and so on. The most important thing about writing war papers is that every ...

  17. War Essay in English

    100 Words Essay on War. The greatest destroyers of people in modern times are wars. No matter who wins a war, mankind loses in every case. Millions of people have died in battles during the past century, with World Wars I and II being the worst. Wars are typically fought to protect a nation.

  18. What Do I Owe the Dead of My Generation's Mismanaged Wars?

    Mr. Klay is a novelist and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War. His most recent book is the essay collection "Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War." About 10 ...

  19. A Complete List of 100+ War Essay Topics

    Vietnam War Essay Ideas. The causes of the Vietnam War and its justification. The impact of the Tet Offensive on American public opinion. The role of media coverage in shaping the narrative of the Vietnam War. The effects of Agent Orange and other chemical warfare.

  20. World War II: [Essay Example], 1360 words GradesFixer

    World War II also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945. The war conflicts began earlier, it involved the vast majority of the world's countries. They formed two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved ...

  21. War, Its Definition, History and Aspects

    War is a broad aspect because it can be referred to as a conflict that might take different dimensions. In this case, it can be a state of being armed to propagate a conflict that can be either between countries or individual parties. As far as war is concerned, there can be a lot of aggression or disruption that might be advanced by one party ...

  22. Is This Israel's Forever War?

    Civilians were being killed at an astonishing pace—more than three hundred Gaza residents died a day in the first month of the war, many of them children. In mid-October, a State Department ...

  23. 554 Words Short Essay on war: a blot on humanity

    There is a common saying that war is never good, peace is never bad. But if we look back into the history of mankind, it will be cleared that there have been wars since prehistoric ages. Although attempts have been made to abolish it, success has not been achieved so far. Thus, eternal peace seems to be beyond our reach. There are people who justify wars and say that it is necessary because it ...

  24. Essay on War and Peace

    It spurs men to heroism and self-sacrifice. It is an incentive to scientific research and development. War is obviously an escape from the lethargy of peace. Essay on War and Peace - No doubt war is an evil, the greatest catastrophe that befalls human beings. It brings death and destruction, disease and starvation, poverty, and ruin in its wake.

  25. Most Israelis dislike Netanyahu, but support the war in Gaza

    Israelis' and Jewish people's long-held feeling of persecution, dating back to biblical times, contributes to most Israelis' desire to continue the war in Gaza.

  26. I Hate Summer—and You Should Too

    America's 20-year war in Afghanistan typically saw its fiercest fighting in the summer months, and the same is true of the war in Ukraine. Hot-weather warfare is likely only to get worse.

  27. Overview of the Insurrection Clause (Disqualification Clause

    Footnotes Jump to essay-1 U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 3. Jump to essay-2 Cf. Enforcement Act of 1870, ch. 114, §§14 2 11;15, 16 Stat. 140, 143 (providing for federal enforcement of the Insurrection Clause). Passage of the Amnesty Act of 187 2 halted subsequent federal enforcement of the Clause against those who participated in the Civil War on behalf of the Confederate States of America.

  28. Weaving the personal and the political during the tumultuous 1970s

    Its starting point and through line is Prose's bizarre, quasi-romantic relationship with "anti-Vietnam war whistleblower and free speech hero" Anthony Russo, who helped Daniel Ellsberg ...

  29. Israel's war on Gaza updates: 'More than 30' killed in Rafah strike

    Israel's war on Gaza updates: 'More than 30' killed in Rafah strike. The Israeli army bombed a displacement camp in south Gaza, the Gaza Civil Defence said, killing and wounding dozens.

  30. Dan Rodricks: Mac Mathias, a principled Republican senator

    A new book, published this month by McFarland Books, offers insightful and nostalgic essays about the late Republican senator.