US President Franklin D Roosevelt warned the people to beware the military-industrial complex - the relationship between the military and the defense industry that supplies it and profits when the country goes to war.

There is a painted sign on a fence near where I live that says something about wars that rich men start them and profit from them but poor men fight and die in them.

I also remember reading years ago that the best way for two countries to have a peaceful relationship was for there to be trade between them. If you have a good trading partnership that is mutually beneficial then you are much less likely to end up in military conflict, I would think.

Who was it that said "jaw-jaw is better than war-war"? Churchill or Macmillan, one of the two.