War is a tonic

Have a gander at this chart:

Location	Population Under Age 15
World	26%
Afghanistan	46%
Albania	23%
Algeria	28%
American Samoa	N/A
Angola	48%
Anguilla	N/A
Antigua and Barbuda	28%
Argentina	25%
Armenia	17%
Aruba	N/A
Australia	19%
Austria	15%
Azerbaijan	22%
Bahamas	25%
Bahrain	20%
Bangladesh	31%
Barbados	19%
Belarus	15%
Belgium	17%
Belize	34%
Benin	44%
Bermuda	N/A
Bhutan	30%
Bolivia	36%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	15%
Botswana	34%
Bouvet Island	N/A
Brazil	24%
British Indian Ocean Territory	N/A
British Virgin Islands	N/A
Brunei Darussalam	26%
Bulgaria	13%
Burkina Faso	45%
Burundi	46%
Cambodia	33%
Cameroon	43%
Canada	16%
Cape Verde	32%
Cayman Islands	N/A
Central African Republic	40%
Chad	46%
Chile	23%
China	16%
Christmas Island	N/A
Cocos (Keeling Islands)	N/A
Colombia	29%
Comoros	43%
Congo	41%
Congo (Dem. Republic of)	46%
Cook Islands	N/A
Costa Rica	24%
Cote d'Ivoire	41%
Croatia	15%
Cuba	17%
Cyprus	17%
Czech Republic	14%
Denmark	18%
Djibouti	36%
Dominica	23%
Dominican Republic	31%
Ecuador	30%
Egypt	32%
El Salvador	32%
Equatorial Guinea	39%
Eritrea	42%
Estonia	16%
Ethiopia	41%
Faeroe Islands	N/A
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	N/A
Fiji	29%
Finland	16%
France	19%
French Guiana	35%
French Polynesia	25%
French Southern Territories and Antarctic Lands	N/A
Gabon	36%
Gambia	44%
Georgia	17%
Germany	13%
Ghana	39%
Gibraltar	N/A
Greece	14%
Greenland	N/A
Grenada	28%
Guadeloupe	22%
Guam	27%
Guatemala	41%
Guinea	43%
Guinea-Bissau	41%
Guyana	33%
Haiti	36%
Heard Island and McDonald Islands	N/A
Honduras	38%
Hungary	15%
Iceland	21%
India	31%
Indonesia	27%
Iran (Islamic Republic of)	24%
Iraq	43%
Ireland	21%
Israel	28%
Italy	14%
Jamaica	27%
Japan	13%
Johnston Atoll	N/A
Jordan	37%
Kazakhstan	25%
Kenya	42%
Kiribati	35%
Korea (Dem. Peo. Rep. of)	23%
Korea (Republic of)	16%
Kuwait	27%
Kyrgyzstan	30%
Lao People's Democratic Rep.	38%
Latvia	14%
Lebanon	25%
Lesotho	37%
Liberia	43%
Libya	31%
Liechtenstein	16%
Lithuania	15%
Luxembourg	18%
Macedonia (The former Yugoslav Republic of)	17%
Madagascar	43%
Malawi	46%
Malaysia	27%
Maldives	27%
Mali	47%
Malta	15%
Marshall Islands	42%
Martinique	20%
Mauritania	40%
Mauritius	22%
Mayotte	46%
Mexico	29%
Micronesia (Federated States of)	31%
Midway	N/A
Moldova (Republic of)	16%
Monaco	13%
Mongolia	27%
Montenegro	19%
Montserrat	N/A
Morocco	28%
Mozambique	45%
Myanmar	28%
Namibia	36%
Nauru	35%
Nepal	36%
Netherlands	17%
Netherlands Antilles	N/A
New Caledonia	26%
New Zealand	20%
Nicaragua	35%
Niger	52%
Nigeria	44%
Niue	N/A
Norfolk Island	N/A
Northern Mariana Islands	N/A
Norway	19%
Oman	32%
Pakistan	35%
Palau	20%
Panama	29%
Papua New Guinea	38%
Paraguay	34%
Peru	30%
Philippines	35%
Pitcairn Island	N/A
Poland	15%
Portugal	15%
Puerto Rico	20%
Qatar	14%
Reunion	25%
Romania	15%
Russian Federation	15%
Rwanda	42%
Saint Helena	N/A
Saint Kitts and Nevis	23%
Saint Lucia	24%
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	31%
Samoa	40%
San Marino	15%
Sao Tome and Principe	43%
Saudi Arabia	30%
Senegal	44%
Serbia	15%
Seychelles	20%
Sierra Leone	43%
Singapore	17%
Slovakia	15%
Slovenia	14%
Solomon Islands	40%
Somalia	45%
South Africa	31%
Spain	15%
Sri Lanka	25%
Sudan	41%
Suriname	29%
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands	N/A
Swaziland	38%
Sweden	17%
Switzerland	15%
Syrian Arab Republic	36%
Tajikistan	37%
Tanzania (United Rep. of)	45%
Thailand	21%
Timor Leste	42%
Togo	41%
Tokelau	N/A
Tonga	38%
Trinidad and Tobago	25%
Tunisia	24%
Turkey	26%
Turkmenistan	29%
Turks and Caicos Island	N/A
Tuvalu	32%
Uganda	48%
Ukraine	14%
United Arab Emirates	17%
United Kingdom	18%
United States of America	20%
Uruguay	23%
Uzbekistan	29%
Vanuatu	37%
Venezuela	29%
Vietnam	24%
Virgin Islands (U.S.)	N/A
Wake Island	N/A
Wallis and Futuna Islands	N/A
West Bank and Gaza	42%
Western Sahara	29%
Yemen	44%
Zambia	46%
Zimbabwe	43%

That's a read on what countries have the highest populations under the age of 15 as of 2012. Anything stand out? Do you notice that the higher your percentage of young people, the greater the likelihood that the country is involved in some kind of violent turmoil?

That's because you can't have wars without able-bodied young men to fight them.

That's not a new insight of course. Neil Wiener made that observation a pillar of his career, and deep thinkers all the way back to Aristotle have noted the same phenomenon. 

Which raises a question; if we've known for three thousand years that a surplus of young males leads to violent conflict, why don't we find them something else to do?

The answer lies in the fact that too many older rich men have learned to profit from the endeavours of the young. Disputes between Liechtenstein(16% pop< 15 years of age) and Switzerland (15%) tend to be resolved by middle-aged men with brief-cases and law degrees. Disputes between Eritrea (42%) and Ethiopia (41%) tend to be resolved (or not) by young men with guns.

But both Switzerland and Liechtenstein are home to many investors who profit handsomely from the conflicts raging between Eritrea and Ethiopia. 

If you look at the two countries most ravaged by American wars of choice in the past 15 years, Afghanistan (46%) and Iraq (43%), you realize immediately that the trillions spent annihilating those societies could have easily been spent providing every young man in those countries with a mud shack and a couple of acres to grow a garden. While that might have kept them too busy to wage war, it wouldn't have done a damned thing for the plump white shareholders at Boeing and Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics and all the rest of them.

Wars also provide an opportunity for countries to ship their restive youth to neighbouring conflicts. For example, both Uganda (48%) and Rwanda (42%) have kept the home fires relatively peaceable by exporting their youthful hotheads to the DRC (46%) to keep the flames of war burning brightly there.

A similar phenomenon plays itself out in the North. America's "volunteer army" would be an impossibility were it not for the dearth of opportunity available to so many young Americans. All those dispossessed young inner-city blacks and trailer trash honkies could stir up a lot of hoo-ha on the home front. It's so much better for everybody (except them and their victims) if we ship them to Iraq and Afghanistan to "keep us safe."

Same with the hordes of young Muslims fleeing the Arab ghettoes of Europe to lose themselves in the hell that is Syria. That's an invaluable safety-valve for the great cities of the continent. This media-generated fear-wave about what they might get up to if they come "home" to Sweden and France and Britain is largely hypothetical. The vast majority are going to Syria to die, but before they do, they will fire off many made-in-the-USA rounds from many different Western armament suppliers, which will make those plump shareholders very happy and even more plump.

So do not despair, dear reader. War may be immoral, but it is never senseless. It makes perfect sense for the people profiting from it. And when, as in America, those are also the people making foreign policy, don't expect this bonanza to whither away any time soon.