But as the arms-control scholar Thomas Schelling once noted, two things are very expensive in international life: promises when they succeed and threats when they fail.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
War is not cheap, but it's the human cost that's the highest.
There is a gulf between the high value Americans put on life in theory and its cheapness in practice.
For instance, we're always fighting amongst each other. Who gives us the arms? And then we become indebted to wherever we are buying them from - with what? The very resources we need to keep there.
The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.
Money has a way of trumping even the gravest of enemies over time.
It's expensive to police the world.
And once you cross over into that world, no matter how strong you are, you have to pay the price.
Wars are expensive and dangerous. They're not political winners.
What we pay for with our lives never costs too much.
The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.