Nascar Man wrote:
So...you think they just died for the wealth, huh? Seriously, has postmodernism really infected us that bad? (postmodernism - the marxist belief that all conflict is economic)
Has it ever occured to you that men may fight on principal - either right, or wrong? For example...do you find it hard to believe that a Saudi Billionaire would choose to live in a filthy cave while fighting the mightiest nation on earth - knowing his only reward in his lifetime will be certain death?
No wonder we are losing the "War on Terror" - we can't even imagine that anything but cash could inspire them.
Nascar, there's almost always a disconnect between why a government starts a war, and what the people think they're actually fighting to accomplish. The two ends are not always contradictory, but again, seldom are they ever synonymous.
Lincoln started his war against the South not to free the slaves, but to make sure his tariffs were paid, and that the South lost twice over economically as a result, while the North prospered twice over.
Many of the Northerners wanted to fight for stupid reasons, such as to force a "union" at gunpoint. Or to "teach those Rebels a lesson." Or because they were drafted at bayonetpoint, or because there were no jobs for an Irish immigrant. Read the soldiers' letters from the time. You'll see what they were fighting for.
Southerners fought to keep Yankees off their land. 95% of Southerners didn't own slaves. It wasn't all about the economics for them, it was the principle of other men shoving their policies down their throats. That doesn't sit well with human beings.
Another reason: when asked by his Northern captor why he was fighting, a captured black Southern soldier simply said, "Because you're here."
In almost every war, soldiers will admit that they're just fighting for their buddies, and to stay alive.
A government that starts a war has to pump its people up. The Lusitania served that purpose in WWI, even though it was a legitimate military target because the ship was carrying munitions, as many other cruise liners were. There were riots in the streets of Boston after a poster of a beautiful woman with a baby in her arms, sinking to the bottom of the sea, was put up. People wanted revenge, based on emotion, not necessarily because of alliances their respective governments cooked up.
-Sans Authoritas