This essay was written after reading Ender's Game for an English class. It was considered off-prompt by my teacher, however she also noted that it was a very good essay. The question that it attempted to answer was "Are wars fought because the leaders of countries cannot communicate?"
The reason wars are fought is not because of a lack of communication between countries, but because of much simpler reasons. Many wars are caused by religion. Others are caused by a competition for resources. Still others are caused simply because one nation's ideologies and views disagree with that of another nation.
Many wars, especially in the Middle East, have been caused by religion. During the Dark Ages, there were Crusades carried out by Christianity. While almost every religion says something to the effect of "Thou shalt not kill", hardly any religion ever follows that simple rule. With Christianity, there were the Crusades, which caused much damage and murder. With Islam, there is a concept of a holy war. There is clearly communication that can go on between these different people, and yet they still fight each other.
Other wars are caused because two groups too different to get along with each other both want the same spot of land, sometimes for the resources held within the land. This happened between Japan and China in the 1930's, when Japan invaded China because resources were needed to build various machines. Japan had the technology and knowledge to do this, while China had the resources needed. Another example is between Pakistani Muslims and Indian Hindus, fighting in Kashmir. Here, although the land is almost completely barren in resources, there is a great deal of cultural significance. This cultural significance is also present between the Palestinians and the Israelis, where both parties want the West Bank. These are yet other reasons why wars are fought, despite the fact that the different nations can communicate.
Another reason to wage war is to distract the people from national problems, and stimulate the economy. While President Bush may not guilty of this, the general populace has waned away from national affairs during the ?War on Terrorism.? The President has been able to get Congress to approve certain bills which would not necessarily have passed had this war never started. Although the current war is not a good example of a stimulation of the economy, other wars, such as World War II, were very good for the economy. While men went out to fight, the women went to work at factories and plants, making the economy stronger. Since there was a lot of nationalism, everyone was happy to help the economy.
Wars are fought because the two sides cannot get along with each other, not because they cannot communicate. Albeit communication plays a large role in many wars not being fought, the reverse is by no means true. Many other factors, including religion, need or want for land, and the stimulation of economy are much more important as to the reasons that wars are fought.