Warmongers: How Leaders and Their Unnecessary Wars Have Wrecked the Modern World
R T Howard

Why, in 1982, did Margaret Thatcher need to send an entire Task Force to liberate the Falklands when a naval embargo, enforced by submarines, would probably have sufficed – or at least bought valuable time? In 1945, did President Truman really need to use two atomic bombs against Japan- and could he not have given Japan advance warning about the terrifying “device” his scientists had developed? After 9/11, could not President George W. Bush have targeted only Osama bin Laden instead of toppling the entire Taliban regime in Afghanistan? These individuals were all, in their different ways, ‘Bloody Warmongers’ who waged ‘unnecessary’ wars, or used a grossly disproportionate, ‘unnecessary’, amount of force. This book mixes historical fact with ‘what if’ and ‘what could have been done differently’. It is designed to challenge assumptions; and to provoke discussion about when and in what circumstances force is ever really justified.