"Cry 'havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war" - Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
 

"Are you for us or for our adversaries?" - Joshua 5:13
 
 

"Pardon our noise, it's just the sound of freedom" - sign at entrance to Cherry Point Naval Air Station
 

"The big bang - took and shook the world, shot down the rising sun
The end was begun - it would hit everyone when the chain reaction was done
The big shots try to hold it back, fools try to wish it away
The hopeful depend on a world without end no matter what the hopeless may say"
 - Rush

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  The world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." - Dwight Eisenhower
 

Probable outcomes of deploying limited missile defense system
 

war derives from ethnic conflict or opposing coalitions competing for power
 

• fewer resources = decreased survival and reproduction

• territorial impulse an evolved psychological mechanism

• loss of status (or life) if opposing group conquers

• conflicts over worthless territory communicate group's resolve not to be dominated

• adult males regularly patrol perimeter of territory, act hostile toward chimps from other communities/groups

• brutal attacks by multiple members of one group against lone members of another

• males try to extend territory and gradually invade neighboring territories

• only takes one individual/group to be violent to cause all others to be violent if only in defense

• sometimes it's "kill or be killed"

• evolutionary logic

• territorial factor - maintaining some resources better than no resources (defeat)

• dominants intend to stay in power, provide resources for kin and allies

• economic sanctions unlikely to bring down leaders of rival countries

• swift retaliation cultivates group's reputation for ferocity - deterrence

• if you never take vengeance, no reason for others not to harm you

• urge for revenge an evolved psychological mechanism

• success in war confers status and reproductive rewards

• e.g., Yanomamo in Venezuela

• villages made up of 50-200 closely related individuals

• relations between villages tend to be hostile

• men raid other villages to kill men and steal women

• wars between villages can last generations

• men who have killed an adversary in a raid had 2.5 times as many wives and 3 times as many children as men who have never killed

• interpretation - men who have killed in battle gain status in own village for their bravery, skill, and strength

• rise in status leads to greater mating opportunities

• those most aggressive to other group most desire to climb in status in own group's hierarchy (Sherif)

"Until recently in human history, successful warriors were traditionally rewarded with public offices and political power which, in turn, was used for reproductive advantage." - Chagnon (1988)
 

• e.g., most U.S. Presidents = high ranking military officers in military or decorated warriors

• an extraterrestrial enemy

• likely to be formidable opponent and strange/different from us

• extraterrestrial threat of nonbiological origin - e.g., asteroid/comet

• successful defensive response would require enormous pooling of resources and cooperation

• for pacifying effects to remain, threat must be ongoing and require continual cooperation