This book has the virtues of being quite short (I read it in a single sitting at the library) and very accessible (the language is grade school level and it assumes almost no background knowledge). But that's about it for praiseworthiness. This book's musings are thoroughly trite and thoughtless. It's clear the author just banged out a long rant on the unavoidability of war one evening and emailed in the manuscript to the publisher the next day. On the natural inevitability of war, he actually thinks war is an adaptively persistent feature of human society (a claim he makes with nothing but just so stories and ad hoc speculation on its selective benefits) rather than the most ultimate breakdown in human sociality. If anyone doubts that it could be possible for a seemingly intelligent person to have utterly nihilistic ideas about war based in wishy washy moral relativism, this book should set you straight. On the other hand, it's a good read for anyone who wants to know in a nutshell what the most reactionary ‘reasons’ for endorsing war could be. ( )