So you deny that war stimulates innovation? A new world was created in five years.
The destruction contributes nothing economically, quite the contrary. I’m completely on board with Bastiat on that.
But I agree with you that war can stimulate innovation. Anything that encourages men to intensely concentrate their minds on technological development, like the motivation of trying to win a war, can produce real progress. Often we see ideas kicking around in civilian science suddenly realize breakthroughs in wartime. There are countless examples of that, from radar to jet engines.