Much as I hate seeing money wasted on weaponry that could be devoted to forestalling global climate catastrophe and the imminent collapse of civilization... War

Much as I hate seeing money wasted on weaponry that could be devoted to forestalling global climate catastrophe and the imminent collapse of civilization... War has only ever been prevented by having been prepared for it. Sometimes you get war anyway. When you do, the outcome without preparation is much worse. Captain Cook happened to mention the peaceful Chatham Islanders, hundreds of miles off east, to some Maori in New Zealand. Within two weeks they had mounted an expedition that killed all the men and enslaved or killed all the women and children.