Human nature and the character of war

Re “Battles change, wars don’t,”

Opinion, Oct. 20

Victor Davis Hanson argues that the fundamental character of war has remained constant from the time of the ancient Greeks to the present “because the nature of humans who fight it is constant over the centuries.”

He acknowledges that technology has changed from flint arrows to guided missiles but then states that “the essence of war remains the same.”

He presents multiple examples of torture, executions, biological warfare, the slaughter of civilians and personal and political affronts to support his argument that, since human nature is constant, wars don’t change.

Although technology may not change how human beings treat each other, he forgets that new technologies can destroy the planet in their production and execution. This makes war, and the threat of war, very different today.

LINDA ALKANA

History Lecturer

Cal State Long Beach

*

Hanson’s lesson from the Peloponnesian War appears to be this: If a nation wants victory in war, any war, the population should be willing to just shut up and not allow the war’s basic premises (or the way it is being fought) to be questioned.

Fortunately for America, the democratic (or Athenian) frame of mind still controls our thinking. Americans will not sacrifice democracy to fight wars that seem over time to become pointless and produce nothing but everincreasing casualty lists.

CARL W. GOSS

Los Angeles