The Illusion Of Victory: The True Costs Of Modern War

Description

Analysing two centuries of warfare involving Western nations, this book systematically demolishes every argument that is put forward to justify going to war. By looking at the victors and the vanquished at the end of a major war and then a generation later, Ian Bickerton finds that the rewards of victory in war never last long. He finds that, objectively, it is impossible to tell who was the winner and who was the loser a mere twenty-five years after a war has ended. Leaders have always convinced their nations that fighting a war is the right thing to do. But, as the proportion and number of civilian casualties have mounted dramatically to the point where they now form a staggering 90 per cent of all war deaths, such arguments ring ever more hollow.