Is War a necessary evil?

“War must not exist for it’s own sake, it must serve a purpose for the state.” As said by a military theorist. The effects of war have always been prospected as the cause of the deaths of many as well as health and economic problems. War has only brought about destruction to those involved and even the innocent. There are certainly different reasons in which countries engage in war, but have the leaders of the nations considered all the alternatives? Certainly they have – As leaders of a nation, they cannot afford to make rash decisions like engaging in war just like that.
Although one may think that war is a ‘destructor of innocent lives’ and a creator of the obscene and terrible deaths of many, as long as we are only human emotions and beliefs will always come into conflict with others. Humans are always selfish, and as leaders of a nation all they want is an idealistic country for them, and therefore have their own beliefs and ideas. Similarly, other nations hence have unique ideas as well. For example, the South Kordofan Conflict in Sudan as well as the civil war in Libya were both triggered by resentment from the citizens or organizations due to conflicting ideals for the country and for themselves. The only way for human leaders to successfully implant his ideals completely without the intervention and objection of others is to eliminate or oppress them when peace talks could not be reached.
Throughout history, there has been many cases and scenarios of country leaders being corrupted and morphing into a tyrant. If you allow a tyrant room to grow, his power starts to spread like disease and the oppression of the civilians will grow worse day by day – even lives would be lost. In the case of Libya, the government leader Gaddafi could not yet be considered a tyrant leader, but the civilians were already living in suffering, resentment and oppression. Had the rebels decided not to wage a war against Gaddafi many innocent lives would be lost and the lives of civilians in Libya will not improve for a very long time. Another historical example would be Hitler – Had the Americans decided to go to war against him earlier he would never have arrived at a stage where his corrupted power spread like bushfire and was nearly incorrigible. Even though he was eventually subdued, many innocent lives had been lost in the process. It was a sacrifice of thousands, to save the lives of a million more.
When a country’s resources, civilian lives and territory are at stake, the only two alternatives to resolve the situation will be to engage in a peace talk, or go to war. When a country is legitimately threatened, war is necessary. Due to the various conditions involved in peace talks and the already hostile and aggressive attitude between countries, peace talks have always been a failure. In the many wars that have occurred in the 20th and 21st century, how many times have peace talks succeeded? The percentage, if calculated, would have been meagre and minute. Peace talks fail, and countries need to find another alternative to defend themselves and resolve the situation. The only choice the countries have left is to go to war. As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain.” If countries do want something for themselves and alternatives such as peace talks fail, they only have to go to war – The dominant one will get things his way.
War is a necessary evil – We are ultimately humans and always have conflicting ideas, we are ultimately humans and corruption will always be a problem. When we are attacked, the only action what we can take when a compromise could not be reached would be to fight back.