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In his 1966 book, "How the World Really Works," Alan B. Jones included a chapter on the "Report from Iron Mountain: On the Possibility and Desirability of Peace," later published in 1967 by The Dial Press. It became a bestseller, then disappeared. Now few copies are available, but when circulating in the 1960s, it concerned Johnson administration officials enough to downplay it, saying it had nothing to do with policy. In fact, it very much did then and now.
It explained the elements of war and problems of peace, saying conflicts are an economic, political and ecological necessity, important to continue indefinitely. In contrast, peace "would almost certainly not be in the best interest of (a) stable society" and might be "catastrophic."
In fact, general disarmament would require "scrapping....a critical proportion of the most highly developed occupational specialties in the economy."
Diverting an arms budget to a "non-military system (is) remote (in a) market economy." Replacing it with public works is "wishful thinking (and) unrealistic."
War is "the basic social system, within which other secondary modes of social organization conflict or conspire. (It's) the system (that's) governed most human societies of record, as it (does) today."
No other control mechanism approached its effectiveness. War-making potential doesn't result from threats. In fact, "threats against the national interest are usually created or accelerated to meet the changing needs of the war system."
Significant nonmilitary war functions and benefits were claimed to exist, including economic protections against depression, and stimulus contributing to the rise of gross national product and individual productivity. Nothing else devised "can remotely compare to it in effectiveness." It's the "essential economic stabilizer."
In addition, war's political importance is crucial. It defines and enforces relations with other nations. National sovereignty and the traditional nation-state depend on it. The war system is essential to internal political stability. "Without it, no government has ever been able to obtain acquiescence (to) its legitimacy, or right to rule its society."
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