A third war, which has dominated the news lately, might also have been set in motion by a costly mistake, as I’ll explain. To economists, this raises a question: If wars are so awful, why do we keep blundering into them? Battle-related deaths exceeded 100,000 in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and 81,000 in Ukraine, according to the Peace Research Institute Oslo. The war that’s in the news now is the Hamas terror attack on Israelis on Oct. 7 and the Israel Defense Forces counterattack, which it says is necessary to root Hamas out of Gaza. There were spasms of heavy fighting from November 2020 to November 2022, charges of war crimes by both sides and famine.

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Persons: There’s, “, Eli Berman Organizations: Peace Research Institute, Israel Defense Forces, West Bank, Ethiopian Army, University of California Locations: Ethiopia, Ukraine, Tigray, Peace Research Institute Oslo, Gaza, San Diego