Why study war. Study war because it is waged with your money.

Why Study  War. 
Study war even though its proponents may be untrackable, as are its profits, because it is our money and our lives are at stake.
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Propaganda of violence. Sculpture in grouping: Children as Victims of Adult Violence, Mihail Chemiakin, Moscow

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1.  Study war, and on your own rather than taking someone else's word for its merits in any particular case. Weigh policy against the self-interest of the proponents or opponents. Vetting is basic to forming a remotely autonomous opinion. Seek out facts behind policy, and the businesses or groups that will benefit substantially and financially from that policy. Who gets what contracts. How to assess going to war. For whose sake.  You may find you support the ones waging your wars.  You may not.

a. Research beneficiaries of war. Not easy.

(1)  The many lives of Blackwater.  Start with any company obviously making money from the first-recourse end of the violence spectrum:

An obvious such company is, or was, Blackwater, founded 1997, that became Blackwater Worldwide, providing mercenary and special security services all over.  Is it reasonable to want to know what profit over expenses it gains by providing its services, and to whom. What is taxed and where. If divisions, or the entity as it now is formed, is a "foreign" entity, where. All this is beyond the ordinary voter, but following dots can lead to conclusions whether reasonable transparency is provided to those who elect the officials who put out or approve contracts with our tax money.

 In 2009  Blackwater, as I understand the sequence, morphed into a new-name company, Xe, after Blackwater operatives were charged with crimes in Iraq, see finding of guilt and sentencing in 2015 Washington Post on Blackwater.  In 2011, Xe changed to another name (did ownership, principals change?), Academi LLC, see WSJ:  Academi LLC. The LLC offers limited liability for misdeeds, see Internal Revenue Code.  A broad look at the industry it serves and its progress: see http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Blackwater_WorldwideAcademi LLC.  Academi LLC then became a division of yet another company, Constellis. See websites with information to see the careful obfuscation of identifying information for contacts, individuals behind.

Subcompanies, divisions of Constellis-Academi (boundaries blur?):

• Academi Consulting Services LLC, Nevada, Foreign Limited-Liability Company, its annual report at http://www.nvannualreport.com/entities-FLLC-ACADEMI-CONSULTING-SERVICES-LLC.aspx;
• See also  Academi Consulting Services LLC, another Foreign Limited Liability Company, contact is in North Carolina, VA file 11077609, http://www.entitysource.com/details/entity/ct_1077609/academi-consulting-services-llc
• Academy Training Center LLC, Arkansas, Foreign-Limited-Liability Company, some details at  http://www.bizapedia.com/ar/ACADEMI-TRAINING-CENTER-LLC.html;
• Same as Academi Training Center in VA? see Entity Source information, and caveat as to source below:
• Academi Training Center,  VA file 1102494. See information at Entity Source,  http://www.entitysource.com/details/entity/ct_1102494/academi-training-center-llc.  That site says it searched for principals and owners, and could find one owner, named Academi LLC and with title member/manager. Other information posted: 
• Academi Training Center is a Foreign Limited Liability Company, located in VA, Sec.State file 110249d as shown at the URL4 founded in 2013. The registered agent for service of process (a required position and disclosure) is listed as Corporation Service Company dba None and None in Unknown
•  What is a "Foreign" Limited Liability Company by statute in the State of Virginia?  Does the company have to disclose its country of incorporation in order to do business in the state? if not, why not?
• Sell your products to Academi LLC through mail application at https://academi.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/document/document/49/PUF_019_Rev_13-_Annual_Vendor_Representations_and_Certifications.pdf  
• Apply for employment at http://www.mercenaryjobs.org/academi-security-jobs.html.
• Be a personal security specialist through personal security specialist
• Academi Training Service, different from the Academi Training Center LLC, above? Have to check. See http://www.entitysource.com/details/entity/ar_402926/academi-training-center-llc, but that Entity Source site does not disclose basic identifying information on its website. Is it reliable. Vet everyone. Use sites to start with objective information, such as file numbers at the Secretaries of State, for example, where the companies are located, and whether an agent for service of process is named. Click around the site and find it is minimal as to information, a plug-in form, but bare data may be ok. Go check.
• Moving on: See Academi Training Service "explained" at http://www.fedmine.us/fedconnect_bizopps/downloadedfiles/Co_DUNS_012418161-ACADEMI_TRAINING_CENTER_INC_1403784083_214160.html

• Academi Real Estate Holdings LIC, (LIC? typo for LLC?) also shown as LLC (which is it, Entity Source? This does not look good) another Foreign Limited Liability Company, VA file 990395, one owner, Academi LLC, same undisclosed agent for service of process, at http://www.entitysource.com/details/entity/ct_990305/academi-real-estate-holdings-llc

• In 2015, Academi LLC then became Academi, A Constellis Company, a new designation, see https://www.academi.com;  Academi now has 3 US training centers.  Look them up.
• Constellis Group, https://www.academi.com/  Where is Constellis Group itself on the web? Look it up to see where it is incorporated, and find http://www.constellisgroup.com/home/ and now there are other companies in its divisions, including an Edinburgh International, something called Global Risk Management, Olive Group, more security services; Strategic Social and Triple Canopy, where Strategic Social is a holding company, see its site at http://www.strategicsocial.com/about/, and Triple Canopy, already apparently in use for several years. Ongoing? See Chicago Mercenary Firm, Government Worksee site.
• Related companies:
•  Academi was held accountable for entifying  principals, following the money and banking used, leading to primary sources, pushing for transparency, is necessary in weighing policy offered by candidates, businesss plans of companies profiting from war.  For example, pick a company that obviously profits from conflict because that is their business: selling to the highest bidder, or favored buyer, the highly trained mercenary, the militaristic system that has ,ittle accountability comparable to that of

(2) Research what the money is and where it goes.  Mwah-ha-ha-hah.  Study where the money goes? Life's great futility, but try. Chart out people, names of banks, all that. See what you find. Make a wallbanger: a newsprint on your own wall. What banking organizations, where, what are the profits, where are they taxed, who is accountable. What interlocking directorates, officers, systems. Don't wage war without it.
 
b.  Include study of each think tank expressing its opinion.  What is on the shield of the persuasive one:

Chemiakin sculpture, Moscow, detail: Propaganda of Violence

c,.  Legitimate question. Ask if it is human nature, or human will, that drives war.  If it is nature, are we stuck. Can we re-set our children.  If it is will, what is in our way. Profits? Power too far tilted in favor of them?  Either way, can the alternative of mutual and reasonably fair containment, survival-sustenance-sharing of resources, work, combined with the force of economic sanctions.

d.  Study war because we do have will.  Aggression, culture to overcome, can itself be leveled enough for mutual survival overcome if we want it.  That leveling comes at the expense of those who have put themselves on top through exploitation, force, however. How to bell them?

•  Belling the Cat: As in the original of the tale, the solution is not in the belling of this particular cat, because another cat will arise and come and it will not be belled, and resume. As the story advises, let all the population take great care with its systems to cover as many cats as possible, knowing it can never eradicate all, and that there is some use to some of them after all. 
• Instead, aim for the goal to contain the catches of the cat so it is minimally (survives) satisfied with