"In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory from a longer continuance of the war."
-- An Inquiry into the Nature And Causes of the Wealth of Nations
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Ambrose Bierce on:
WAR, n.
A by-product of the arts of peace. The most menacing political condition is a period of international amity.
PEACE, n.
In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.
Not really along the lines of the point you were making, but still witty.
> them this amusement compensates
> the small difference between the
> taxes which they pay on account
> of the war
Yeah, right, "small"... Each time at gas station...
Hey! No more posts? Yo!
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