Yet, in time of peace the populace views war preparation as leading to those very wars, not as a deterrent.

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Mr Carter apparently read more than 35 books on the war in preparation, and spent seven years writing The Hornet's Nest.

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To be sure, it does not want to risk a war over an action by the other side that falls short of immediate preparation for war.

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Military training gives a much better psychological preparation for war than any amount of counselling, which, he says, tries to create victims.

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The Book of Numbers is so named because of God's command to Moses that he should count the Israelites in preparation for war.

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Artists get little preparation for war.

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It was not until government spending surged in preparation for World War II that the U.S. job market sprang to life.

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In 2001, Phillips was the first network correspondent to gain exclusive access to CAG 9, the elite Navy air wing, in preparation for the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

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But a whole variety of factors - the call-up of certain types of reservists, the chartering of commercial shipping, the reported movement of pre-positioned equipment both to and within the Gulf region - all suggests that if war comes, it could begin with far fewer signs of obvious preparation than many people have argued.

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If it now confronts a messy war and a messy peace, it is largely because it resorted to force with such inadequate preparation.

ECONOMIST: Messy war, messy peace