Western warfare has been a game, since the transformation of barbaric fiefdoms into Christendom. Other than the Reconquista of Iberia, European wars were between Christians, ie among monocultural sociopolitical entities. After Carolus Magnus' genocidal crusade against the pagan Saxons, no real external, alien sociocultural force threatened Christendom, until the rise of the Osman house in the East. Perpetual internecine warfare among Christians seems to have reduced the concept of war into a ritualized game for the aristocracy in the Western mind. Thus, the fascinating, perplexing, and comical Western concepts of jus ad bellum and jus in bello in discussing "proper" conduct in war - a sociocultural conflict between irreconcilable societies who can not communicate effectively to reach a peaceful consensus.

The Western mind has perceived war as a game, since the Middle Ages. Even within the 20th century, the fools in government prattle about "war on poverty," "war of drugs," and quote Sun Tzu when discussing mercantile dealings. In a sense, Christian sensibility and the ludicrous notion of just war theories have reduced war into a game, resulting in a polity more willing to kill than not - a paradox or irony of sorts. War is the extermination of the opposing idea, using any available force, even nuclear or biological annihilation. The theory of "just war" is claptrap nonsense that results in more hazard than benefit to the human race.