If not Iraq, China?

Apparently we were angling to go to war with someone. This story argues that if it wasn't for 9/11 we would be at war with China now.

An Economist Ponders Grief Over War Death

Not the private grief a family feels for a lost son or daughter (or father or mopther or brother or sister or friend), but the grief society feels for losing soldiers in a war. It's no surprise after all, no one promises otherwise.

Economics is called the dismal science for a reason.

On Peace

Is humanity becoming more peaceful? Despite well documented attrocities over the past century or so, Steven Pinker says that we are and offers proof.

Part of the reason is the development of governments that claim monopolies on the use of coercive power. Without it, you and I must rely on vigilante force and vendettas to solve disputes--often preemptive and homicidal.

Greater media coverage allows us to empathize with a larger group of people than just our own clan, making us less likely to act out violently than we may have in the past. We are less likely to want to kill those we recogize as human.

Maybe governments are justified after all.