War... has changed...
Unnecessary game references aside, war is a pretty terrible way of resolving issues, when you think about it. It is effective, but not efficient; while political leaders argue behind desks, they send thousands of soldiers at the other leader's side, like pawns in a game of chess. They supposedly care about the troops, but the real reason they care is if they don't die in one firefight, they can be used in the next. Many times there isn't even a clear winner to a war (see Vietnam) and if there is, victory comes at massive causalities (see World Wars) and defeat even more so.
Unfortunately, it's a tough habit to break. Fighting over territory and resources is practically primordial stuff- animal instinct hardcoded into our behavior. Despite the best of intentions from two sides, there will always be conflict due to the fact that you will never get enough people who trust each other to stop fighting; hell, even if 99% of the world's population suddenly decided not to wage war, that 1% would come along with big sticks and ruin it for the rest of us. Consistent diplomacy is a pipe-dream; and let's face it, two opposing countries will probably feel safer if they both have nuclear capabilities and large armies/navies/air forces than they will if neither country has an active military.
tldr- It's a horrible thing, but I think the only way war will end is through either divine intervention or through mass extinction, when there's nobody left to fight anybody else.
EDIT: To add on to my first paragraph; yes, there are sometimes ulterior motives that begin a war or fuel an existing war: they do not always start because of simple disagreements. World War II began because of the German blitzkrieg on Poland, sure, but everyone was much more eager to fight when they found out about the 8 million Jews being burned behind the German front lines.
Last edited by Ragdollmaster; May 23, 2010 at 03:12 AM.