What have been the benefits of war?

War has not been an unmitigated evil. In fairness we must note the
following points:

(1) In spite of its danger, and its pain, war has been a great
excitement and joy to men. Tennyson is doubtless true to life in making
Ulysses exclaim "All times I have enjoyed Greatly, have suffered
greatly. . . And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the
ringing plains of windy Troy. How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
As though to breathe were life!"

In the Iliad, indeed, we read: "With everything man is satiated, sleep,
sweet singing, and the joyous dance; of all these man gets sooner tired
than of war." In primitive times, and even, though decreasingly, in
modern times, the cause of war has lain not merely in the ends to be
attained thereby, but in the sheer love of war for its own sake-the
quickened heartbeats, the sense of power and daring and achievement,
the joy in martial music and uniforms, in the rhythmic footsteps of
marching men, in the awakened thrill of patriotism, the love of effort
and sacrifice for a cherished cause.

To some extent this primitive lure of war still persists. But,
fortunately, the glory and excitement of hand-to-hand conflict, the
picturesque valor and visible achievement of earlier battles, are now
gone. The soldier is but a cog in a machine, usually at a considerable
distance from his enemy. He does not know whether his shot has hit
or not; if he is wounded it is by an invisible hand. All the strain
and fatigue and pain of war remain, but little of its glory and delight.
Moreover, whatever normal satisfaction has been found in war can be