[Angry Brandybuck]

So, so far it has been more or less 'decided' that Tolkien doesn't like war, but see it as a neccessary evil to counter worse evils in the world, embodied in Middle Earth by Saruon/Morgoth.

I still do not like the overly romanticised view of medieval warfare that some seem to possess, but oh well. I guess that is a large element of Tolkien's writing (harking back to his being brought up reading 'boys own' stories no doubt!)

Was he right though? is it right that sometimes, if you feel a certain thing is wrong in your opinion, should you attack someone based on that? The Cold War (although not a 'real' war) was viewed by many in both America and the USSR as an idealogical conflict. Of good verses evil but in truth the Americans just didn't want Communism to spread because it would mean they lost trade and money etc. And the Soviets wanted to spread COmmunist ideas because that was the only way their Marxist beliefs could be fulfilled.

It strikes me also that Tolkien is setting the idea of very much a modern war, a war of ideals, where a whole country/nation/people are set against another, (This is 'Total War' as written about in theories by Clausewitz.) into a Medieval context. Wars in the 'swrod and shield' age were primarily fought to claim land and make money, not for any moral reasons.