[Ryzorian]

War's are fought for a varity of reasons. Some sound more noble than they turn out to be. General Robert E. Lee mentioned that it was a good thing that war was so terrible, or humanity would enjoy it too much. Japan wanted to unify Asia under Imperial Japanese rule, no they didn't want to start a fight with the US, at least not imediately. The embaro pushed thier hand early because the were running out of fuel and steel.

I would suggest that war is actually successful more often than not, that's why it happens so much. Somebody wants freedom, or power, or wealth, or land, or resources or a water port. whatever reasons they have, they make viable economic and political sense to the individuals at the time.

The Mexican American war increased American land mass by a considerable amount, the Civil War freed the slaves, the American Indian wars opened access to resources and mineral wealth plus large tracts of land for farming and population growth. Spanish American war brought the US wrold stage notice as well as over seas colonies.

You can say these wars were all bad, and perhaps they were in the sense that much violence was done and innocent people were hurt/killed/ driven from thier lands. However, someone also benifited from said actions. It's those benifits that encourages war. It's really just a national version of bully's takeing lunch money from those weaker than they are. The weak can't stop it and the bully gets free lunches.