The Meaning of War

War-- a horrific way of justifying our actions and the innocent lives that have been lost, but on the other hand has resolved some of the greatest conflicts in history. Not every issue ever raised in this world is resolved through negotiation and discussion, rather sometimes war becomes a necessity for countries to settle disputes. War is a part of how a society strengthens itself politically, socially, and economically however, ultimately it becomes a country’s abusive use of power.

War can be defined as “an active struggle between competing entities. It’s truly hard to tell who is right or wrong during a war. Both sides are fighting for what they believe in and what is true to their heart. In the end there is always two things promised – destruction and death. These two objects can explain the result in every facet of war from the physical to emotional.

War leads to oppression and leaves negative implications on all people and societies by impacting the poor, women, children, and nations as a whole. "War is a state of violent conflict between one or more groups" (Rasenberger 3). Rasenberger defines war as a state of conflict between one group within itself or several groups in combat with each other, what is not mentioned are the after-effects of war. War itself leads to many civilian and military deaths, an estimated 1.5-3.8 million people died during the Vietnam War and an approximate 500,000 people died in the Iraq war. The biggest tragedy of War is that it always results in fatality, but another key, negative, factor to understand is that after the War many adverse implications arise. Post-war ramifications in the nation fall upon the poor, women, and children, making them weaker and less motivated leading to the downfall of a society. Regardless if a nation wins or is defeated in war they have to deal with consequences of war and find solutions to the impacted people and society. It is essential to understand that there is never a true victor in war because regardless of the outcome, fatality and a fall of morale within society on both sides are inevitable. War has often been the solution to situations that required force or violence, but in recent times this has

From the beginning of recorded history was has always existed. The causes of war varied from disputes between lands, power, resources, religions, government systems, and economy status. No matter what they reason, war seems to be part of human nature. Every culture around the word has different views of war. In ancient times the Mongolians viewed it as sport and desired to conquer lands and gain more power. The Chinese considered it a great honor to serve their country and go to war. Customs were diverse throughout the regions about how to honor the soldiers, living or dead. Rules of war were developed in some places, but many accounts of war have been unregulated and bloody. Treatment of the innocents of the enemy side varied, as well as the treatment of captives and the dead bodies.

War: a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state. War is inevitable. Especially in the cases in which one country has a desire to break free from another country and/or its influences. This, at least, was the basic reason as to why the Vietnam war and the Revolutionary war started. As a matter of fact, these two wars are strangely similar. The Revolutionary war and the Vietnam war are alike because, they had similar war strategies, they had similar characteristics, and most importantly, they had the same reasons for going to war. Moreover, these two wars are strangely alike.

War is normally defined as a state of open, often prolonged, armed conflict between two or more groups, usually nations, states or other parties. Wars are usually begun through the clash of interests between the different groups such as territory or resources. Before a war can officially begin the groups involved usually have a formal declaration of war to make the citizens aware that there is a war.

Dating to the beginning of civilization, war continues to be a repeating occurrence in the world whether it be with oneself, society, or the outside influences in the world. In terms of war between countries, there is the growing controversy over its utilization and purpose when a country is predisposed to a situation foreboding unavoidable conflict. War is the only solution to certain situations but cannot be considered a panacea to all the issues prevalent in the world. The reasoning behind this is that war produces consequences some of which that are permanent. War has always spawn more conflict, gives disfigurement to human bodies, death and occasionally affects the state of one’s mind in areas such as mentality, emotions, rationality

War is a horrible thing that comes out of hatred in people’s hearts and produces tragedy around it. War comes and goes but in its path are people who have to suffer through the hardships it brings. Two of the most notable aspects of war is that war is a fight for power and that produces loss of family.

War can be defined as armed conflict between nations or states or even different groups within a nation or state. All these wars, approximately 14,000 in the past 5,000 years, take innocent civilians away from their family, home, what they know for months or even years at a time. Often times the conditions these individuals are living in while at war are far from the normal life they previously lived. Vets often see and have to do certain task that no human being should be required to do. Leaving behind a lot of mental repairing to do once back home. Once a war comes to an end, these civilians are thrown back into a culture they have been away from for months, even years with little to no direction on where to start to build their lives again.

‘War’ as defined by Webster’s Dictionary is a state of open and declared, hostile armed conflict between states or nations. Voltaire—the human personification of the Enlightenment period—says the following: “Famine, plague, and war are the three most famous ingredients of this wretched world…All animals are perpetually at war with each other…Air, earth and water are arenas of destruction. Defining war has been a political issue for centuries, and it poses a philosophical problem. Most philosophers will agree on war being a clash of arms, or a state of mutual tension between nations or states, distinguishing it from open rebellions, riots, and personal violence.

War has been going on just about as long as people have been alive. Whether it is just some cavemen fighting over a fire, or multiple countries going to war for justice, there has always been some scale of war. I am going to be analyzing way through functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives.

The comprehension of the term ‘total war’ has had great significance towards the understanding as to how wars are fought, affect society and differ from other conflicts. The main issue that arises is conclusively defining total war and is continually differing between both historians and military combatants alike. Roger Chickering defines states “total war is distinguished by its intensity and extent. Theatres of operation span the globe; the scale of the battle is practically limitless” all the while adding “total war requires the mobilisation not only of armed forced but also of whole populations” This definition, while not quintessential is a good starting point for a definition due to its broadness and acceptance of the idea of the incapability to fully mobilise a society’s entire resource. David A. Bell states that it is often defined as ‘a war involving the complete mobilization of a society’s resources to achieve the absolute destruction of an enemy, with all distinction erased between combatants and non-combatants’ . However, he notes the limitations of such an idea including the inability for societies to meet such criterion, in particular, the ability for a society to completely utilise its resources towards the war effort. Ultimately, Jeremey black, while not giving a conclusive definition for the term, total war, does acknowledge different definitions by various individuals distilling many of their arguments and consequently outlining main characteristics of

War is a conflict carried out by force of arms, between nations, states or between parties within a nation which can be on land, sea or in the air, always caused by something. It’s a clash of interests which results in violent armed struggles and can affect

Furthermore,war is a state of conflict between different groups that potentially end with death. The action of fighting is used for many untold reasons, none of which are worth fighting for. However, if people could learn how to use their words more effectively, less fighting would take place. War is like a loop it never stops, it continues to go round and round

By nature the war is considered to be political, fundamentally interactive and most importantly something exceptionally violent. If any of these elements are absent, it might be constituted to something else instead of a war because it has got a certain nature to be called as a war and must meet a certain criteria. While on the other hand, the character of war is something that keeps on changing as per the manifestations and changing phenomena of the real world. The character of war is political that keeps on taking place among various societies. Politics plays a great role and character in shaping the society. While the conduct of war is highly affected by cultural, political, ethical, legal, technological as well as social factors along with the factors associated with the organization of military. However, the place and time keeps on playing great role in deciding the character of wars .