It's a good thing to scare potential enemies that it's not a good idea to invade and take what is yours but what many don't see is what good comes out of a military you never use.
The military trains leaders. Not just for battle but for civilian life. How many of our citizens learnd to manage people and resources in the military? Thousands. Many men of the past and now women were trained by our military with skills that can be used in civilian life. From engineers to aircraft mechanics just to name a few.
How many inventions were created came from the need to make weapons or communication systems because they could be used by the military. The Internet for one. GPS. How many more can you think of.
Billions of dollars spent on innovation and human capital that contributes to the betterment of our civilization.
But just like the atom bomb actually using our military can destroy more than it creates. Now that we have seen the destruction that an atom bomb can cause why haven't we learned that the prolonged use of destructive forces will eventually create the downfall of our ability to create our future, but, instead we can destroy our future. If we were to use another atomic weapon I have no doubt the end would be hastened but we have been at war now for more than ten years. That has been just as destructive to our future overtime as an atomic weapon is in seconds.
In these past eleven years our military has not been turning out an abundance of leaders but an abundance of broken men and women. Our money has been spent on research but on munitions, fuel and trying to repair the casualties of those broken men and women who have been forced to kill instead of create. Having flashbacks instead of dreams of future success.
This not only has a long term detrimental effect on the individuals and their families who fight our wars but on the population as a whole. We have less money to spend on education and innovation. We turn out more people who aren't educated enough to fight in a technological future battlefield.
We have fewer people learning to repair the injuries of war. We have fewer people learning to feed a growing population and fight disease.
And worst of all we create a society that thinks that is the way life should be. Always at war, spending money only on destruction and not creation. Spending money on guns while those not part of the military machine go hungry.
There are a few populations that became extinct to due weather or geologic catastrophe. But almost every single population that thought war was the way to riches imploded because of themselves.
If you insist on fighting civilizations that have barely advanced beyond the Stone Age, it won't be long before you join them.
If you want them to like you send them food and medicine. Nobody likes to fight on a full stomach.
