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Comment by acadapter | Hacker News Reader

There are countless examples of wars were many have sacrificed themselves for nothing. WW1 is probably the prime example.

Of course, while it all was happening, it was commonly described as the most important thing to do.

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World War I is frequently depicted as a pointless war in e.g. the UK and France because of the massive number of deaths in trench warfare for just a few meters of ground. However, some Eastern Europe peoples view the war as quite a benefit due to the terms that were imposed on the losers. The modern Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, etc. would not have existed if the Austro-Hungarian Empire hadn’t lost the war.

Well maybe then Slovaks should have fought for Slovakia independence and not Englishmen or Russians?

They did, tens of thousands of them.[0] There were analogous movements among the other peoples chafing under Austro-Hungarian rule. But these were minority peoples up against a whole empire, and they wouldn’t have won the day if the war hadn’t brought in enough other powers to completely defeat Austro-Hungary.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_Legion

From the perspective of Serbia's population, WWI was more of a catastrophe, even though it had a positive political outcome (the disappearance of the Habsburg Empire).

And there were other wars where sacrifices are not seen as pointless. So, never defend anything?

What about a war to not let communists come into power in a country across the ocean? Is it worth dying for?

Depends, certainly how South Korea looks like today, you could say that was a success by some measures. I don't think you can really get utilitarian here, but rather societies form views around their wars.

The point of war usually is not to make a country successful; the point of imperialistic wars is not to let the enemy have the country.

The UN approved military action in Korea was an imperialistic war?

Your view is also very short-term, not sure everyone subscribes to that.

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