"The rest of it. You see, sooner or later the initial shock is going to wear off, Carl. Then, perhaps if we're lucky, we'll be evenly matched in armament and personnel under arms, but that will be all. A balance of peace is no good. You convince no one that peace is desired. You simply convince them that for awhile, there's no way they dare break it. But again, sooner or later, the dare is taken and then--" "I want to go, Doug." "Not yet. I want you to hear me out. And, I'm going to ask a rather special favor, Carl. Judge the plans on the merits of its logic alone. For the moment, imagine you have no emotion." "I can, but it won't do any good. Afraid I have emotion, Douglas." "I see. Tell me, if it is so valuable a thing as to be allowed to cloud your reasoning, why would you instantly throw it away if something called patriotic duty were suddenly thrust upon you?" "It would shake me up a little of course--" "Yes, but you'd chuck it. You'd perform the duty." "All right. I don't know the tricks of debate, you do. Go ahead, I'm listening." "I'll begin this way. If, we'll say, an infantry captain realized that by sacrificing the lives of three of his men and possibly his own, he could save the lives of his entire company, what would he do, if he were what is termed a 'good' officer?" "Why, if that were his only alternative--" "I assure you, it would be, for the purposes of my analogy." "He'd--he'd save the company. That's happened." "Even to men with emotions." "Why--yes of course. Damn you Doug--" "Even when one of the three to be sacrificed might be a kid who was still in high school when he enlisted--" "Yes. Yes I guess so." "Now remember what you've just told me, and switch to this.... What, actually, is the basis for armed conflict between nations? Generally speaking, with the long view of history?" "I--I suppose covetousness. Materially translated that would mean just plain wanting the grain fields, the ore mines, the sea ports, the wealth someone else has and that you no longer have, doesn't it? Land, then. Hitler called it _Lebensraum_. One outfit thinks another is stepping on its toes over this chunk of real estate or that. Etcetera, ad nauseum, ad politics." "Good. And what's the real root of this material covetousness do you think?" "Grass is always greener, I guess." "That is motive enough for the small-scale wars, yes. But I'm speaking of the kind nations fight in desperation, not merely for the sake of warring." "Then, well--they run out of what they've got. Want more. Is that the answer you want?" "Almost. What makes them run out, Carl?" "Not enough stuff to take care of their population, not enough work to supply the money to buy what little there is to buy. Too many people, not enough resources to keep 'em happy."