“But wars – or the threat of war – at least put an end to American chattel slavery, Nazism, Fascism, Japanese militarism, and Soviet Communism. It is hard to think of any democracy – Afghan, American, Athenian, contemporary German, Iraqi, Italian, Japanese, ancient Theban – that was not an outcome of armed struggle and war.”

“But wars – or the threat of war – at least put an end to American chattel slavery, Nazism, Fascism, Japanese militarism, and Soviet Communism. It is hard to think of any democracy – Afghan, American, Athenian, contemporary German, Iraqi, Italian, Japanese, ancient Theban – that was not an outcome of armed struggle and war.”

— Victor Davis Hanson