War is, of course, unnecessary. So what percentage of time in recorded history would you expect there to have been no war, if war was defined as a conflict claiming at least 1000 lives? Just 8% or 268 years in 3400 years of recorded history, according to a New York Times article in 2003. You can make that 268 years out of 3422 years as of 2025. That data suggests that to war is at least as human as to err. But if that’s not convincing enough, consider the popular, fictional Star Trek series of as realistically rosy a future as the 60s hippie could envision. Humanity has solved all of its unnecessary, universal problems like hunger and war. So what do we do? We go to war with aliens like the Klingons and Romulans! Of course, we didn’t start these wars, and we are only forced to engage in them, as we supposedly are wiser than that. However, I’m not convinced that if we were so wise, we wouldn’t be able to convince other intelligent species of the futility of war. It seems we can’t exist without war as a species, at least not for long from the suffering peace causes to some. Besides, how good a show would Star Trek be without its wars?