Reply #35: Kosovo was one example of a largely-altruistic war. [View All]

[Donald Ian Rankin]

You're wrong about WWII, I think - Britain and France declared war on Germany, not vice versa, in response to German aggression directed at other nations (2b).

Remember that the relevant question is not "when is it a good idea for a war to happen?" but "when is it a good idea for our country to declare war?".

FWIW, I agree that virtually no war is going to be purely altruistic, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're all going to be worse than the alternative -
provided there are good reasons *as well as *the self-interested ones a war may be justified