At least we've gotten past the notion that innocents are not killed in war.
But I am not a collectivist. I don't think countries war with each other, because countries do not think or act; individuals do. Countries are not sentient beings; individuals are (some of 'em, anyway).
In the beginning, before the war starts, various individuals decided it was in their interest to have a war. They then use their positions of influence to drag the rest of us along, and repress those who don't agree. Here's Mark Twain:
"The loud little handful - as usual - will shout for the war. The pulpit will - warily and cautiously - object... at first. The great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it."
Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded, but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the antiwar audiences will thin out and lose popularity.
Before long, you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men...
Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
-- Mark Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)
But yeah, people can rationalize anything. It's the thing human beings are most talented at.
Maybe we should bomb lots more countries, to help them out in our usual way.
