Re: [OT] Bureau of Relocation

>	  In the novel, Rico (studying to become an officer) is given
>	  a term paper about war.  He discovers that all war comes
>	  from population pressure (though sometimes you have to
>	  dig deep in the records, the Crusades were mentioned).

Actually, the Crusades weren't launched to control population.	By that
time the Viking raids had ebbed and the huge military force to defend
against them was no longer needed.  This was a predominately feudal
force, therefore it was impossible to just do a budget cut to reduce the
size of the army.  Even worse was that there were all these knights bred
and trained for war and no war to fight.  So what do a bunch of bored
knights do? They go start wars to have something to do.  And where do
they fight their battle?  In large flat pieces of land, a.k.a. the
peaseant's fields.  And what does this do to the local economy???  The
Crusades were a way of "down sizing" the military.  Most of the knights
who left never returned.

It's much better to fight war on somebody elses of property.  Two World
Wars have proven that.

IAS