This has got to be one of the craziest articles that i have read. It is in Phillips commentary on Revelation. I do not know what to think. I see much of what these people wrote. I see that war is something that is always happening. I just found it interesting and thought you might too. Not sure what to think so you tell me.

A book entitled Report from Iron Mountain[¹] was published some time ago. It claimed to be a suppressed government report, the result of a high-level study on the role played by war in the modern world. The book was highly controversial; some maintained it was a hoax, others claimed it was authentic. The study was allegedly conducted by fifteen scientists representing a wide range of disciplines. The group included a historian, a political theorist, a professor of international law, an economist, a sociologist, a cultural anthropologist, a physical chemist, a biochemist, a communications theorist, a systems analyst, a war planner, and an industrialist. The group was told to waste no time on “agonizing over cultural and religious values.” It was to give the same kind of treatment to the hypothetical problems of peace as has been given to the hypothetical problems of nuclear war.

The first conclusion was that wars would cease if the will to make them cease were there. But since war itself is at the very root of mankind’s social systems, it is not likely that peace will ever be a serious goal. No substitute is known that can better stabilize and control national economies. War, moreover, is the foundation of stable government; every governing body that has failed to sustain the continuing credibility of an external threat of war has lost control of its constituency. War provides a nation with a means of controlling its youth; it provides society with an effective means of dealing with overpopulation; it is probably the greatest single stimulant to scientific research; it has a high social value for dissipating boredom; and it gives the older generation an effective means for controlling a physically stronger and more vigorous younger generation.

The report found no satisfactory substitutes for war, although it explored a number of alternatives. Vast increases in social welfare expenditure would not be a sufficient countermeasure. Massive investments in space research would not be an adequate substitute for war for stimulating national economy. One startling conclusion was that, in the political realm, if war were to be abolished, some sort of slavery would need to be instituted as a means of controlling destabilizing social elements. Populations would need to be controlled by the compulsory introduction into water supplies of some sort of birth control chemical. The overall conclusion reached was that war is essential to society as now constituted, and it would be irresponsible to remove the war system until it was known exactly what would be put in its place.

No wonder God says of mankind that “the way of peace have they not known” (Rom. 3:17) and that the Lord Jesus declared, with characteristic incisive analysis, “Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matt. 24:6–7).

The human race finds the trappings of war fascinating. It loves the accoutrements that surround the military

¹ Leonard Levin, ed. Report from Iron Mountain (New York: Dial. 1967).



 John Phillips, Exploring Revelation: An Expository Commentary, The John Phillips Commentary Series (Kregel; WORDsearch Corp., 2009), Re 6:3–4.