I’d posit that war is always atrocity, but sometimes it’s better than the other choices on offer. Pacifism has no answers, alas — it just means that those willing to dominate with force of arms and threat of violence do so with no consequences. The same destruction and genocide occur, just with no opposition even in principle.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about meta-evolution and the idea that evolution itself is constrained by the base instantiation of the universe to produce creatures that in individualized form tend to be war-like when combined with the ability to accrue resources that are durable over time.

Still pondering that one.