An organized, violent conflict between two or more large groups of individuals, countries, societies, factions, tribes, etc. War has been waged by humans
since time immemorial, first with rocks and sticks, then with bows and arrows and stone axes, then with progressively more advanced weapons. Wars have generally been fought for land, religion, political and ideological control and control of resources. Today, wars are waged with firearms, bombs,
satellites, various forms of artillery mounted on a number of different weapons platforms. The number of weapons during the 20th century also expanded to include chemical, biological, and nuclear arms and each of those has seen limited use during that time period. Only one type of warfare is capable of wiping out the species that spawned it, and that is nuclear. Only this type of war has never been truly fought, outside of the destruction of the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Some of the wars fought during the last 14 years include conflicts in Iraq, Israel, Kashmir, Somalia, Afghanistan,
Rwanda, Congo, Colombia, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Lebanon and
Liberia. During the 20th century it is estimated that over
127 million people have lost their lives in war.
War will be around so long as
humans are around to
wage it.
