The redistribution of wealth has been a common idea among men for a long time. It has only recently in human history that mankind has decided to codify into the common feature of government and make it some kind of moral good. The ideology doesn’t matter here, because the redistribution of wealth occurs in most political movements in some fashion or another.
Now, I know that Socialism was invented for the specific purpose of ensuring economic equality, to a degree (from each according to his means, to each according to his needs), but that term was invented by Robert Owen only two centuries ago. Mankind has engaged in rampant and blatant wealth redistribution for a long time, probably since the days of Cain when he built the first city named Enoch. This form of wealth redistribution could be considered more brutal and harsh than the current forms. I speak of course of war.
War is the ultimate form of wealth redistribution. This is why many Socialists are fine with war, despite their statements being against it. The truth is, every war will end with the victors getting the spoils of war, even if it wasn’t their ultimate intention.
The spoils of war need not be entirely material. I know in the olden days, the more honest days, wars would often involve looting and raping of the various villages and kingdoms of the victors and the losers alike. There are several instances in the Bible that indicate this. But today, the spoils of war tend to be less about material goods and more about advancing the economic productivity of the conquering nation.
Think about it. We did not recover from the Great Depression until about 1948. This is largely because the Federal government deregulated the war-time restraints and because the United States had demolished the European and East Asian economies. To be fair, Germany, Britain, and Japan all did their large share of decimations, but the United States came out stronger because there were no bombs dropped on the continental United States. The same could be said about the post-World War I boom we experienced as well, although it could be argued that the Federal Reserve had something to do with that as well.
Because we’ve gotten better at lying to ourselves in the past half century, wars these days still feature the same old pillaging that it did back when there was just swords and arrows. During the Kosovo war, NATO forces secured the oil pipelines that ran in the nearby regions. During the Iraq War, we’ve let Haliburton work to restore oil production. I will say that we haven’t had much to show for these wars, though, because gasoline still costs three dollars a gallon.
The kicker about the wars that are necessary fought for economic gain are the longer wars that we end up fighting. Both Vietnam and Afghanistan are the longest wars the United States has been in and yet neither country offers any economic benefit to our nation.
Granted, there are exceptions, but most wars are fought for economic reasons. The fact is, neither side will ever have the moral high ground because both sides are willing to kill without remorse. So save your moral arguments for the dumb masses, I know why we go to war. It never has anything to do with religion, race, or ideology, but simply for economic reasons.
Anyone who argues differently is more than likely lying, either to himself or to you. War is not justified, except in self-defense. And nothing we are doing these days is about self-defense.
Conservatives need to wake up and realize that they are supporting the redistribution of wealth through war.