The Inexplicability Of War Poem by Paul Hartal

How do psychologists explain warfare?
I have a vague idea that they might talk
about Man's inherent violent disposition,
but I don't really know.
Furthermore, when I wanted
to educate myself on the subject
with The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology,
to my surprise, I found no entry
on the subject of war.

Yet the literature of warfare is, of course, huge.
Historians, political scientists, philosophers,
sociologists, economists, military strategists,
as well as many other writers 
of both fact and fiction have written
a great deal about armed conflicts
and their causes.

Nevertheless, and in spite of my own
personal war experience,
I view wars as an absurd phenomenon.
As a political option organized violence
does not make any sense.
I could never really understand
how humans can kill
other human beings, randomly,
in haphazard manner,
without any personal motives.

After all soldiers on the warring sides
are probably complete strangers
to each other, people who never met before
in their ordinary life and whom
they slaughter nevertheless casually,
without genuine wrath and anger,
without any good or valid reason.

However, I recognize that reality
is complex and it transcends logic. 
Not all wars are the same.
Unfortunately,  some armed struggles
are justified and necessary.

Even as adamant a pacifist 
as the mathematician and Nobel laureate
Bertrand Russell had realised this
at some point in his life.

Russell underwent a total transformation
in his attitude regarding armed conflicts.
During the First World War
he was imprisoned  for his dedicated
and uncompromising pacifism.
However, when Hitler rose to power
Russell understood that the Nazis
could be stopped only by the force
of the sword.