Why do we fight wars?

Okay, so I am going to warn you that this post is like a 3rd grade throwback to ending world violence and promoting love and eternal happiness. So forgive me as I am about to be very ignorant and probably too optimist. But I do want to explore war and why we fight it. 

I am a pacifist. So in my ideal world there would be no war or fighting and we would deal with our differences through “other” wars such as boycotting products or refusing to recognize a state acting inappropriately. Now I know there’s war- there has been since the two cavemen fought over the last morsel of food and there will probably be war forever. But why? I mean, think about it. If the theory that everything comes down to economics (a theory that I believe is 99% true for everything- with some rare exceptions), war makes no sense unless it is to get land and raw materials. For example, it would be economically beneficial (but really cruel) of the US to take over a Middle Eastern country for its oil. In that case, I don’t agree with war but I feel the motive makes sense for the selfish nation. But other wars cost billions of dollars and lives for what? The Vietnam War and War in Iraq anger me for 2 reasons relating to this: first of all, our innocent soldiers just doing their job are getting flack for the unpopular war (thankfully this was a more Vietnam thing than an Iraq thing) and as cities such as Providence have to turn away homeless people because of lack of beds in shelters, don’t you think the billions of dollars should go to that? I mean, think of what even $1 billion pumped into cities (divided of course) and how we can achieve some of our longer term goals for reducing crime, ending homelessness, and making life better. 

But I don’t want to lecture on the war. If you go to Brown and are reading this you probably know more about the conflicts than I do, but I just wanted to make a general point. Sure it may be 3rd grade, but I sometimes think that a life filled with everyone thinking like a 3rd grader may actually be better in the end...