War. What's it good for?

Absolutely something good, says Thomas Sowell--who, as an economist is trained to evaluate things by their incentive structures--if the stuffed shirts like Sec'y of State John Kerry would shut up;

...where have the U.N., Kerry and Obama been during all these decades of endlessly repeated Middle East carnage? The Middle East must lead the world in cease-fires. If cease-fires were the road to peace, the Middle East would easily be the most peaceful place on the planet.

"Cease-fire" and "negotiations" are magic words to "the international community." But just what do cease-fires actually accomplish? In the short run, they save some lives. But in the long run, they cost far more lives, by lowering the cost of aggression.

In the long run there will be more dead thanks to the likes of Kerry, but students of history know something else;

At one time, launching a military attack on another nation risked not only retaliation but annihilation. When Carthage attacked Rome, that was the end of Carthage.

But when Hamas or some other terrorist group launches an attack on Israel, they know in advance that whatever Israel does in response will be limited by calls for a cease-fire, backed by political and economic pressures from the United States.

If Hamas knew Israel would be unconstrained in its response, by international opinion, it's likely they would not even think of shooting rockets into their neighbor's territory. Peace would be at hand.